Activision Blizzard has revealed that its wonderfully addictive free-to-play card game Hearthstone has now surpassed 20 million registered players worldwide.
Having only launched in March, this means that the milestone was surpassed in less than seven months — no mean feat, considering the title has only been available through PC, Mac and, ever since April, iPad.
In tandem with the announcement, the company also confirmed that the collectible card game would also make its way onto mobile and Android platforms in the “not so distant future.” So we can readily expect the game’s impressive instal base to grow and grow from here on out.
The first single-player expansion, Curse of Naxxrama, also launched back in July and introduced a hoard of new cards as well as additional content that was released periodically throughout the month. Blizzard has also confirmed plans to introduce a second add-on to Hearthstone in the near future, though an exact release date on this follow-up expansion is yet to be released.
As a matter of fact, Blilzzard’s World of Warcraft-inspired title has struck such a chord with the gaming community that the inaugural Hearthstone World Championship is due to take place this November alongside the company’s annual Blizzcon event, with budding players competing for a top prize of $100,000.
Hearthstone is a shining example of how developers ought to implement free-to-play mechanics that are fair and balanced in a space that is teeming with titles that are primarily concerned with taking money from the player. And based on these recently-released figures, it appears as though Blizzard’s venture into the freemium space has been an out-and-out success.
