Why are MoBAs so popular?

In CoH you have to have good micro and strategic oversight.

Every tank you have is like a MOBA hero for itself. You have much more possibilities and Strategic options. In teamgames those qualities multiplay even more. You need more skill because you have to micro more units

So why are MOBAs so popular, when RTS, especially CoH is the far superior game?

Eh, I used to play Dota2 when I was 16 until I moved somewhere with shite internet. I can definitely see the RTS appeal, especially playing with friends and having fun with tactics and micro.

League of Legends is cancerous though, no argument there.

In CoH you have to have good micro and strategic oversight.

Every tank you have is like a MOBA hero for itself. You have much more possibilities and Strategic options. In teamgames those qualities multiplay even more. You need more skill because you have to micro more units

So why are MOBAs so poular, when RTS, especially CoH is the far superior game?

kids can micro only one unit

... You have much more possibilities and Strategic options. In teamgames those qualities multiplay even more. You need more skill because you have to micro more units

You kind of answered your own question. Most people don't like effort.

You kind of answered your own question. Most people don't like effort.

But those games look like shite and and have boring gameplay. they are like a mobile game

In CoH you have to have good micro and strategic oversight.

Every tank you have is like a MOBA hero for itself. You have much more possibilities and Strategic options. In teamgames those qualities multiplay even more. You need more skill because you have to micro more units

So why are MOBAs so popular, when RTS, especially CoH is the far superior game?

Late but i'll answer what a discussion i had some time ago with other people.

1-Amount of required knowledge to start playing the game. It's way harder to introduce a complete newbie into the RTS genre as there's plenty of things they have to learn "first" before they can actually enjoy the game.

You could say that with 90-140 heroes to pick in most MOBAS that would amount to more things to know, but as starters, you only need to learn a single hero and you move from there.

2-MOBAS are more flexible with gamemodes. SC2 succeeds with the ARCADE + CooP. Outside of ranked modes, Quickmatch, vs Bots, there are more casuals things.
Let me remind you that a mod in DOTA basically spring out a new genre of game called Auto Chess, which had for some time, more viewers than the DOTA2 game itself.

3-More people playing = better matchmaking and game quality. Positive loop.

4-Smaller/faster/better/clearer during a game gratifications/rewards. Subconsciously you will get more from killing a champion than wiping a Conscript squad.
It's easier to get little clearer "wins" outside of finishing the game.

5-Focus/stress: there's way more downtime on a MOBA compared to an RTS where there's always something to do. And if you aren't doing anything, you are not playing correctly.

6-APM/Mechanical skill required: yes, at the highest level of play, there's mechanical execution as if it was a fighting games on MOBAs. But in most RTS you need a certain degree of APM to succeed even in the lower ranks.

7-Gacha/Lootbox for cosmetics.

8-Teamgame vs 1on1 gamemode focus: easier to blame others and just push away any psychological pressure.

9-Rigid gamestyle: at some point in RTS, you need to follow certain build orders and matches would play out in similar ways. On MOBAs, the permutation of items and 5 on 5 heroes makes for what it can feel like varied gameplay.

10-RTS Elitism pushing away the newer generations.

I could go on.

And things are not going to go any better in the near future.

WC3 Reforged was THE GREATEST failure we have seen in a long time. Blizzard had been in declive for a long time. Diablo Mobile was just the first warning. This is the 2nd one. GGNORE.

In the last 6/7 years there has been no title which could bring back the genre to thrive and all great IPs from the golden era are death at the moment with the sole exception of AoE4 (which is still an incognita).
RIP: WC/SC. C&C. Supreme Commander. Homeworld. DoW.

We are just boomers in denial.
Oh look Planet Annihilation looks promising. Grey goo been done by ex Westwood, it will bring back the genre! Halo Wars has a big name, universe and fans behind it, sure it will be popular! WC3 can't fail, it's been "done" (outsourced) by Blizzard. Iron Harvest looks great!

The wings of Liberty train of popularity has departed long ago.

I speak about DOTA2 since I haven't played LoL. Dota is super popular for several reasons but main ones are:
- It is free to play and you can get skilled without paying for anything. All paid content is cosmetic.
- It is server based. No peer to peer means cheating isn't even possible in dota. There are lots of servers around the world making the gameplay experience very smooth and low latency.
- Lots of patches and new content, game modes, etc.
- It is fun to play at low level and matchmaking works fine coz the player base is huge (due free to play)
- It is super-competitive at high level. They have tournaments with millions of dollars involved and ofc a big company like Valve backing it up.

snip

The Age of Empires remasters were a great sucess, with AoE4 on the way.

CoH and CoH2 have both been extremely successful and SEGA is potentially looking towards CoH3.

Wargame: Red Dragon is very popular and successful. Steel Division 1 and 2 are high quality games that underperformed but are still quality games.

Total War has hit a gold mine with the fantasy titles and the introduction of hero units, magic and large units which gave depth to the gameplay and has revived the series.

Hearts of Iron IV and EU4 are grand strategy titles but in essence are cousins of the RTS genre and have been quite successful despite Paradox’s incompetence.

Halo Wars 2 was a very good RTS which got robbed of popularity by Microsoft’s stupid DLC policy. Maybe now on xbox game pass it’ll see more life, especially with the huge hit that is the Master Chief Collection. If M$ are smart they’ll bundle them, HW2 ultimate and MCC for like 40 $.

Starcraft 2 is still a giant of the RTS genre.

Overall things aren’t so bad. I think the main issue for the RTS market has been DoW3’s failure due to Lelic. Had that been a moderate success people would be feeling a lot different.

The Age of Empires remasters were a great sucess, with AoE4 on the way.

CoH and CoH2 have both been extremely successful and SEGA is potentially looking towards CoH3.

Wargame: Red Dragon is very popular and successful. Steel Division 1 and 2 are high quality games that underperformed but are still quality games.

Total War has hit a gold mine with the fantasy titles and the introduction of hero units, magic and large units which gave depth to the gameplay and has revived the series.

Hearts of Iron IV and EU4 are grand strategy titles but in essence are cousins of the RTS genre and have been quite successful despite Paradox’s incompetence.

Halo Wars 2 was a very good RTS which got robbed of popularity by Microsoft’s stupid DLC policy. Maybe now on xbox game pass it’ll see more life, especially with the huge hit that is the Master Chief Collection. If M$ are smart they’ll bundle them, HW2 ultimate and MCC for like 40 $.

Starcraft 2 is still a giant of the RTS genre.

Overall things aren’t so bad. I think the main issue for the RTS market has been DoW3’s failure due to Lelic. Had that been a moderate success people would be feeling a lot different.

Strategy games includes different types of games. RTS, RTT, Mobas, Artillery, Turn based, Tower defense, Auto battlers, etc. When we talk about RTS, this leave titles out like the Total War franchise, Wargame type of games or mostly RTT (real time tactics) out of the bag (Men of War, Steel Division).
We are not discussing the popularity of the strategy genre, but the RTS one.

Total War and Paradox titles are a niche genre with a smaller but solid market. Same with grand wargames type of games such as Steel Division/Red Dragon/Men Of War


So focusing back into RTS:

-AoE 2 HD was a failure, not sale wise, but in the multiplayer aspect. Plenty of issues with Steam and people just stayed on the old version of the game and playing through Voobly.

-AoE DE and 2 DE are different beast. Looking great but it's mostly moving the playerbase from the old version to the new one.

-Starcraft is the only last bastion of REALLY POPULAR RTS. I've just checked and it seems theres around 300K 1v1 RANKED players at the moment worldwide. CoH (summing all factions) have around 12K players ranked 1v1 at the moment. And that's with duplicated people (because most people play more than 1 faction). Even if we account team games (as they are more popular) we are not even close.
IIRC 1v1 should be around a third or barely scratching less than half (if we account ALL ranked) their playerbase. CooP is more popular than ranked for example.

That been said, you can ask ANYONE on SC2 and they will tell you (jokingly or not) that the game is "dead". At least, Blizzard didn't know how to capitalise the game e-sport wise, during the launch of Wings of Liberty and "killing" it during the Swarm.

DoW was just one more failure in the list of RTS failures of the last 7 years. It wouldn't move the needle.