Not even a week ago one of the most popular Arena of Valor streamers Zane officially stated that he would quit AoV. He isn’t the first nor the last one to make this decision: Vex just announced to retire from AoV a few days later, too. And a couple of days before Zane, Beginnings AoV switched to Mobile Legends as well. Many players are concerned whether the game is about to die now and consider to follow the flow.
Is Arena of Valor dying?
The western regions of Arena of Valor have been struggling for months now. Since half a year Tencent has pulled support for the North America (NA) and Europe (EU) server now. While the player numbers are still in the 6-digit area, they don’t compare to the player base of the Chinese substitute of AoV, Kings of Glory (KoG).
Despite rumours buzzing around that Tencent would launch a global version of Kings of Glory, AoV remained literally untouched. Nowadays, there are still regular updates happening every few months, but the marketing has been shut down completely.
Nonetheless, the queue times for the majority of players are still short; although other games like Mobile Legends outshine AoV in terms of the player base, the servers are far from dead.
So why did Zane quit AoV?
Most streamers in the west state similar reasons to leave Arena of Valor:
- At the very top of the leaderboard, you feel the rather small player base a lot more than a casual player. The queue times in high elo frequently exceed 5 minutes, sometimes even 10.
- No variety – the lack of players also means to play against the same opponents all the time. Being a well-known streamer also attracts trolls. It’s not a rarity that either on your team or the enemy’s there are players who are trying their best to sabotage you.
- Low player base equals low reach when it comes to streaming. It is a lot easier to become much more popular when playing more successful games like League of Legends or Mobile Legends.
The future of Mobile MOBAs
One of the reasons for Tencent to stop the support for Arena of Valor is the current development of League of Legends mobile together with Riot Games. There have been a couple of videos and screenshots leaked on Facebook, even though it’s not officially confirmed yet.
While Kings of Glory remains the most popular MOBA worldwide, Mobile Legends attracts more and more players from the west. Having one global server makes queue times a lot faster and very frequent updates keep the player entertained.
The recent trend of streamers quitting Arena of Valor in favour of other games definitely doesn’t help AoV to maintain it’s player base aside from Tencent dropping the support for the western regions.
Nonetheless, Arena of Valor convinces with innovative Heroes, a complex and well-balanced Armory system and good visual design. Even though Asian servers are in a much better state, there are still more than enough players to enjoy Arena of Valor as a casual player.
Read – The complete beginners guide to Arena of Valor
What do you think?
Do you believe this is the end of Arena of Valor? What’s your opinion on Zane leaving AoV in favour of Mobile Legends? Let us know in the comment section below!
