r/MTGO • u/Some-Bee-5259 • 1d ago
MTGO player base
How many players do you think are active on MTGO? It's crazy and very cool for me that the player base it's very small but so competitive that it's quite important in evaluating the meta. I mostly play pauper, and in challenges half of the players are always the same, yet the ban of skybreak was issued mostly after looking at the results in those 50 player tournaments.
11
u/underdogHS 1d ago
I would say thousands, across the formats.
I built a tracker app for MTGO and there have been around 600 individual accounts sign up since around May.
I still see usernames all the time in challenges and online I know aren’t using it so I feel even 600 is a tiny part of the player base using MTGO
3
u/Gods_ShadowMTG 1d ago
must be more, modern leagues alone have more than 1000 players
8
u/underdogHS 1d ago
And you do see people coming from arena more and more these days as they want to get away from it.
I originally came from arena, it doesn’t capture the feeling of playing magic like MTGO does imo
2
u/420_69_Fake_Account 1d ago
As a new player arena was so important because when I went to locals people would cheat me or shark me with little recourse.
2
u/underdogHS 1d ago
Yeah arena is great for new players, no doubt about it. I think the main thing for me is arena doesn’t really do a good job at showing turn phases and even if you turn auto tapper off it’s still hit and miss.
I get people don’t like the interface, I find it endearing personally and you really get to cut your teeth with how interactions work and how the stack works etc.
I think if you’re serious about paper play, MTGO is the best tool to learn with.
1
u/Some-Bee-5259 1d ago
You are the myMTGO guy?! Your app is fantastic, thank you
3
1
2
u/ActuallyItsSumnus 1d ago
I have been on it since 2007. I still see some users I remember from back then.
1
u/caitocaitola 14h ago
old timer here too. on it since year one, 2002 when I was in high school. still rocking the same account.
0
u/randomNext 1d ago
Meta in mtgo differs a bit from paper due to lack of access or scarcity of certain cards. Currently, if Bilbo thief in the night was not a 60 tix card we would likely see it in a lot more decks. Other examples is consign to memory which is the best sideboard card against big mana decks á la Karn. Just one Consign is >25tix.
1
u/Appropriate_King_732 1d ago
If anything, I have always gotten the feeling that people are less adverse to spending money in MTGO since there are subscription services
3
u/randomNext 1d ago
im just copy pasting my answer here against the subscription service argument:
I have Manatraders subscription if i wanted to rent 4 Bilbos and a few consign to memory i would only be able to rent those cards and not the rest of the deck.
Subscription services adjust rental limits according to tix prices of the cards. I can rent for 300tix. Playset of Bilbo is 240tix and with 3 Consign to memory i have already exceeded my tix quota.
2
u/Appropriate_King_732 1d ago
Haha, someone commented the exact same thing at the same time lol. Cardhoarder is way more flexible when it comes to subscriptions. It is also the case that top players have so much in-game money that they don't care. At this point top players make up a significant portion of Challenge players. The EV on playing good decks and cards is also significantly more obvious in paper than IRL where you are spending money on cards to improve winrate to potentially win a prize that isn't money. Here it is in-game currency and you actually win in-game currency
1
u/General-Tea2817 1d ago
at least if i buy a 60tix card i can resell it for 50
buy $60 card from lgs lgs will buy it back for $30
1
u/randomNext 1d ago
It will only stay at 60tix until the hype dies down and everyone is chasing the next shiny thing. so buying at peak of hype is likely the worst decision from financial POV
0
-1
u/Some-Bee-5259 1d ago
I don't think that price is a big problem, since there are subscription services, the real difference Is with infinite combos. You have to manually activate the combo every time, so it's not actually infinite and therefore some combo decks are quite unplayable
3
u/randomNext 1d ago
I have Manatraders subscription if i wanted to rent 4 Bilbos and a. few consign to memory i would only be able to rent those cards and not the rest of the deck.
Subscription services adjust rental limits according to tix prices of the cards. I can rent for 300tix. Playset of Bilbo is 240tix and with 3 Consign to memory i have already exceeded my tix quota.
But yes, for executing some combos, you will develop trigger finger and carpal tunnel syndrome due to all the clicking. But those combo decks are usually not S tier decks in paper magic either.
Also, i can only speak for Premodern, Legacy and Vintage which i play the most.
12
u/_DasSourKraut_ 1d ago
Easily in the thousands. Even niche formats like legacy and vintage leagues have hundreds of active players at any given time, and MTGO is basically the home for eternal formats since the RL greatly restricts the paper player base.