‘League Of Legends’ Will Dominate MOBA, ‘Dota 2’ Will Stay Alive, And ‘Heroes Of The Storm’ Also Promising

It has been almost six years since League of Legends was released and started dominating the Massively Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre of gaming, and it’s now at the forefront of the online gaming arena, and most likely to stay on top.

Gamasutra puts into light a published report by the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR), a firm that specializes in market research of the video game industry, which puts League of Legends at the core of the MOBA industry. According to the EEDA report, which could be acquired here, League of Legends will stay at 66.3 percent share of the market until 2016. This is not surprising with the success of the title, reported to amass over $1 billion in revenue yearly.

A far second from League of Legends, but still a major player in the industry, is Valve’s Dota 2 at a predicted 14 percent. Dota 2 has been very successful as well, benefitting immensely from the feat pulled off by Dota. In retrospect, the MOBA genre really blew into proportions not with the release of League of Legends, but with the release of the first Defense of the Ancients (Dota), a mod created for Warcraft III in 2003.

It is a long pitch, but with the continued support of gamers for League of Legends, it is not all too impossible. Also with Dota 2, its popularity in the genre is not to be underestimated; just last year, Lazy Gamer reports that Valve has funded the Dota 2 TI4 prize pool with a massive $10 million dollars. With the popularity of League of Legends in eSport tournaments, people can only guess how much Riot Games is willing to shell out for their annual championship.

Jonathan Leack from Game Revolution, however, is one of the people who is excited to switch to the upcoming Heroes of the Storm. While it is true that MOBA gamers tend to stick to their titles such as League of Legends and Dota 2, the much awaited release of Heroes of the Storm on June 2 has EEDAR expecting a sizeable share of the MOBA market for the title. Leack notes some of the reasons why he is transferring from League of Legends to Heroes of the Storm.

“League of Legends has an unattractive launcher, and its game looks several years old even on maxed out settings. There’s a reason you rarely see people sharing screenshots of the game, it just doesn’t look all that good. Heroes of the Storm goes for a similar colorful approach, but has far better textures and character models, making for some pretty screenshots. Equally as important, the main menu is nice on the eyes.”

That is just the beginning. From time allotment, map selection, hero list, and overall gameplay, Leack has made some pretty interesting points pitting League of Legends against Heroes of the Storm.

At a predicted 7 percent of the market, EEDAR analyst Edward Zhao wrote that Heroes of the Storm will also benefit immensely from Blizzard’s immensely loyal fan base. Despite the amount of time a MOBA player invests to learning and creating tactics in huge games like League of Legends, there is still a miniscule possibility — but a possibility, nonetheless, as PC Gamer mentions — that veterans could switch titles.

But as far as EEDAR is concerned, 2016 will still be huge for League of Legends and Dota 2.

[Image via artubr/Flickr]