Why RTS is not popular anymore?

It seems RTS is not as popular as before, there are no hot RTS in recent years. Why people don't play RTS as ten years ago?

@crazynote: I think the main issue with RTS right now is the genre itself. Nowadays fast paced, competetive and rogue-like really flood the market and get played frequently across all groups of people.

I do not think that RTS is dead in a sense, the genre just needs a shift towards something more different than we know. A good example of this is the Anno series. While still beeing the same game over and over, just a small few changes made the game something new and refreshing for the genre.

In my opinion we just need to wait a bit for some really promissing new titles with elements you have never seen before. Stay tuned!

Traditional games

- Lack of marketing

- Publishers like EA all but abandoned them

- Other style of strategy games make more money (MOBA)

- They tend to lack a cinematic aesthetic, to the casual viewer, boring

- Time consuming, required thinking than mindless grind, which many MP games basically are now, and grind rewards monetization

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If you check GOG or Steam, there are still plenty of both old and new games to play, at a cheap price that will run on a toaster.

So it's not all bad, I guess. Just horrifically terrible.

Why RTS is not popular anymore?

Sadly the answer is very, very simple.

Once upon a time a modder (Eul) played around with the WarCraft III editor, which was a somewhat popular RTS game of its time. And as a result created Defence of the Ancients, a revision to the MOBA genre (multiplayer online battle arena)

Did so well, most know the name, far more than the entire RTS genre in general.

MOBAs replaced the RTS genre. It's factual.

And even with Battle Royale being as big as it is currently. LoL (biggest MOBA on the market) is still the most played game on the platform.

Stagnation. While TBS games have innovated and improved, RTS has not kept up the pace or even kept up with the times. You still have two kinds these days. Base builders, which have remained unchanged since pretty much C&C in 1995 (except graphics) and tactical RTS, like Company of Heroes, which again has not really changed since CoH released in 2006.

There are some outliers to that gross over-generalization, yes. However nothing has really stuck that well. And it hasn't helped that AAA devs have nearly abandoned the genre, leaving it up to indies and AA studios/publishers like Paradox and Petrogylph to fill the void.

Because everyone is still playing the pinnacle of competitive RTS design: Supreme Commander FAF

...but yeah I'd like to get another epoch-based RTS like Empire Earth in the modern standard...

Because they were all the same and people burned out. It will come back.

Two million is far from everyone. Still good sales for an RTS game.

WftO (RTS God Sim) only has something like one mill, recall DLC for its milestone.

Haha I was kind of joking. I really do think of it as the best competitive RTS though. Oh and the UI is outstanding for an RTS.

I'd be willing to bet that thanks to the Forged Alliance Forever community launcher, SupCom is more popular now than it probably ever was. I don't think it's integrated with any Steam features so FAF is the only reliable way to find and make online games. There's quite an active community and you can find recent high-level matches with commentary on YouTube.

Because modern RTS games keep trying to chase the "golden years" of RTS gaming. Where other genres have evolved, adapted and incorporated features from other genres to create new experiences. RTS devs keep trying to make the same games that were being made 20 years ago.

It's still popular with me anyway, can't wait for Age of Empires 4!

I think a lot has to do with the two companies who made RTS games really huge in the 90s have both abandoned these games. I’m talking about Blizzard and EA. In the 90s Warcraft/Starcraft and Command and Conquer games were topping the charts left and right. When Blizzard actually gave us Starcraft 2 it sold like hot cakes but they have since abandoned RTS again. There are still lots of new RTS games out there but they just aren’t getting the attention they deserve because the BIG BOYS aren’t releasing them.

If a real return to form C&C, WC4, and SC 3 were to come out that were true to the originals then it would be back on top. Sadly I don’t see it happening so RTS will remain most known as a MOBA thing ala LoL.

It may not popular anymore but it's far from dead. Age of Mythology and Age of Empires 2 & 3 remaster as well as newer games like Ashes of the Singularity, Stellaris, Battlefleet Gothic series etc. There are also upcoming ones such as Conan: Unconquered and Iron Harvest which will be available later in this year(I hope).

By the way I do agree with OP that RTS is not popular anymore because most big-name developers apparently abandoned them. Only small developers like Stardock and indie ones still interested on it.

I kinda don't know honestly...

It has problems but same with many other genres.

I think real-time strategy, as a sub-genre, has sort of faded to the back burner to make way for other strategy sub-genres: turn-based games like Civilization, grand strategy like Stellaris, 4X games like Sins of a Solar Empire, hybrids like Total War, and even city-builders like Cities: Skylines and Tropico. I'd even mention tactics games in this argument as well, such as XCOM and Mutant Year Zero

This too.

Games like Grey Goo, Ashes of the Singularity, Forged Battalion, and other somewhat recent entries (past five years or so) have sort of subscribed to that concept. They're not bad games, but as a long time strategy game fan (in all forms), I have to say that the old formula has gotten a bit old. I mean I was actually playing one the other day and it sort of dawns on me now that it plays identical to Dune 2, a game that came out in 1992; sure the visuals and controls are better, but pretty much the same experience. That's not a criticism, just an observation.

I am still waiting for more action-strategy games like Battlezone 1 and 2. Those were really good blends of action/simulation and base-building strategy. Would love to see more of those, especially given how huge and detailed game worlds can be these days.

Petroglyph is really cranking out RTS games these days

• 8-bit Armies
• 8-bit Hordes
• 8-bit Invaders
• Forged Battalion: I don't know if you played Warzone 2100 or the Earth 21___ games where you could customize your own vehicles, but this is the next best thing to those games
• Grey Goo I had fun with this game, it is a pretty good story-driven RTS if you like that (I do).

And of course you have the Petroglyph classics, their best games imo; Star Wars: Empire at War and Universe at War: Earth Assault.

While they can be hit and miss, I did really enjoy their 8-bit games. Played them a lot when the multiplayer was still active and would still be playing them if the multi were still active. Forged Battalion could have been really good if Team 17 didn't abandon it immediately after release. Looking forward to the Command and Conquer and Red Alert remakes though :)

Personally hoping they start work on new Command and Conquers after these to remasters but I wouldn't mind if they were to update some of the other games for more modern tech like they did with the ultimate collection. Most importantly I'd like to see official multiplayer come back to games like C&C 3 :P

Cause of casual gamers )

I think actually my best way to phrase this is RTS were never that popular... they were niche... on console theyw ere very few and far and in between and of interest only to a select group.