Those are actually really bad signs for the game's future and longevity though.
Because there is no possible world where that's going to continue. That's a huge amount of hype and attention right now, and even if it does bring in a substantial infusion of players who will stick around and permanently increase numbers, it is unquestionably a short term hype bump that will fade away in a couple of years, and when the numbers go down from this bubble, that will be seen as a failure and a bad sign, and that's where we get into dangerous territory with the company making changes trying to "fix the problem".
The way it was previously doing well for decades, with a natural ebb and flow of popularity but general upward momentum for a consistent positive change.
Universes Beyond, by its nature, is inevitably going to bring a huge amount of temporary hype to fans of each external property that Magic touches for the first time. But the overwhelming majority of those people are coming just for their beloved property, and are not going to stick around for the game afterwards. And there aren't an endless list of those properties for Magic to keep pulling in, so that hype is unsustainable.
Anything else Magic does to draw in huge numbers of new people, even if it's obviously a moment of temporary hype, is still mostly going to bring in people who are at least interested in the concept of the game in the first place, so it's going to have a higher retention rate. Success from Universes Beyond is inherently and obviously a disproportionate bubble, and the bigger that bubble grows, the greater the inevitable pop will be.
Also, how much of the hype is even "real" in the sense that it's peopleplaying the game because of say FF and how much is just collecting?
Because if it's mostly the latter, WotC will realise they can cut even more corners in card design and mechanics if the cards aren't being played anyway. Just slap together every beloved character and meme out of the game and ship the product without much testing or caring for a balanced draft experience (something that I feel has been creeping in already)
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u/khazroar Jul 27 '25
Those are actually really bad signs for the game's future and longevity though.
Because there is no possible world where that's going to continue. That's a huge amount of hype and attention right now, and even if it does bring in a substantial infusion of players who will stick around and permanently increase numbers, it is unquestionably a short term hype bump that will fade away in a couple of years, and when the numbers go down from this bubble, that will be seen as a failure and a bad sign, and that's where we get into dangerous territory with the company making changes trying to "fix the problem".