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Blizzard's latest entry into the mobile gaming market - Warcraft Rumble - is already on its fourth season since its global release on November 3, 2023. A game quite similar to Clash Royale, its development journey so far has not exactly been pleasant to follow for its players. Where will the future of the game hold? Let's find out!
What is Warcraft Rumble?
Let's start from the beginning, just briefly. You can skip this section if you are already familiar with the game.
Warcraft Rumble, was originally titled Warcraft Arclight Rumble and first revealed all the way back in May 2022. Since then, it has been in soft launch under a limited number of regions, has undergone a complete reset, shortened its title to just Warcraft Rumble and finally released globally on November 3, 2023.
As a Blizzard title, it was bound to get a lot of attention. Like Diablo Immortal, Warcraft Rumble wanted to emulate its massive financial success but was always going to be scrutinized by gamers with their free-to-play monetization model, typical of mobile games.
Unlike Diablo Immortal however, Warcraft Rumble since its release has been mired with development troubles and lack of content. So what's happening?
Gaming Industry Layoffs
Back in January 26, 2024, it has been reported that Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox, joining many other companies that are currently doing to same (which also includes the giant Riot Games).
We don't know the extent that this has impacted the current Warcraft Rumble team, but since its global release, it does not look to be smooth sailing at all.
Major Bugs, Issues, and Delayed New Content
Warcraft Rumble launched globally at the same time as BlizzCon 2023, where it was announced to the world. The game's panel had some information on what's to come:
Raids, a co-op mode that requires at least level 26 units to participate.
The Scholomance dungeon featuring Jandice Barov, Rattlegore, and Darkmaster Gandling.
The final campaign zone, Moonglade featuring bosses are Brightwing, Brumera, Ysera, and Cenarius.
Unfortunately, none of these have come to fruition quite yet with no further news since then. Other than minor unit balances, one new unit per season (every 6 weeks), oh, and a new icon clearly changed in an attempt to attract more players - what's been happening?
Since the game's launch, numerous bugs and game loading issues have prevented players from enjoying the game fully. The worst of the issue was the "infinite Gold" exploit, where some players could farm the most valuable currency in the game for hours on end.
The fiasco ended with compensation for all players and taking back the Gold from those that exploited the bug.
With that, the communication between the community has been mostly reduced to lacklustre patch notes (that have been a few days late at times). Another minor point to add: Season 4 was originally announced to be the Faerie Dragon as the new unit, but has been changed to the Witch Doctor. You can take a look at the Season 4 overview and the patch notes below.
Monetization and Sensor Tower Data
Of course, there is no exact way of telling how the game is doing currently after all that. Warcraft Rumble's monetization depends heavily on the typical mobile free to play experience - pay to speed up your progress because leveling up gets exponentially harder. While there are numerous bundles that cycle throughout a player's shop, the Arclight Booster is something a bit more unique to Warcraft Rumble.
For $19.99 USD equivalent, you get extra Gold for everything you do in-game forever. You can even buy it retroactively. Some players also say the cost of the game is essentially $19.99 because it takes a lot of Gold to level up your army and progress in a satisfying manner.
Warcraft Rumble's data in February 2024 according to Sensor Tower has revealed it had around 140,000 downloads and made around $2 million across iOS and Android. This is compared to approximately 500,000 downloads and $4 million in January 2024!
Even if these numbers are estimates of the in-app purchases, they are known to be fairly accurate. Here's a good breakdown from Old Guardian about this topic:
Season 4 Overview
New Troop
The Voodoo is comin’ to Warcraft Rumble in Season 4. Curse enemies and shield allies with Warcraft Rumble’s newest Troop, Witch Doctor. Beginning March 6 earn Witch Doctor as a reward from the Guild Warchest and PvP.
Witch Doctor won't be available in the G.R.I.D until Season 5, but don't worry; you can add him to your collection of Minis through the Guild Warchest, PvP, or three Store offers—one at season start, one mid-season, and another at the end of the season.
- Name: Witch Doctor
- Family: Horde
- Deploy Cost: 2 Gold
- Traits: Ranged, AOE, Elemental, Cycle
Ability
- Cursed Beam: Curses enemies dealing damage over time and causing enemies to explode upon death, dealing AOE damage to other nearby enemies.
Talents
Amplify Curse
Enemies damaged by the Curse explosion also explode on death.
Spirit Ward
On kill, grant a shield to nearby allies, absorbing the next hit against them.
Alchemist
Periodically drop a potion, granting Bloodlust to the first ally that touches it.
New Emotes
The new Gnomelia Thumbs Down and Finger Wiggle emotes are giving sass that would make Onyxia proud. The Finger Wiggle emote will be available in the Guild Warchest and the Thumbs Down emote is earnable through PvP at 12,000 Honor.
Season Schedule
Family: Undead
Dungeon: Deadmines
PvP
- Tower: Dragon Tower
- Enchant: Hero's Resolve
- Modifier: Bounty Hunt
Arclight Surge
| Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Baron / Grommash | Baron / Grommash | Baron / Grommash | |
| Bloodsport | Bloodsport | Dragon's Hoard |
Family: Beast
Dungeon: Gnomeregan
PvP
- Tower: Dragon Tower
- Enchant: Hero's Resolve
- Modifier: Bounty Hunt
Arclight Surge
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Sneed / Drakkisath | Sneed / Drakkisath | Sneed / Drakkisath | Drakkisath / Jaina | Drakkisath / Jaina | Drakkisath / Jaina | |
| Dragon's Hoard | Dragon's Hoard | Ding! | Ding! | Ding! | Towers of Power |
Family: Alliance
Dungeon: Blackfathom Deeps
PvP
- Tower: Dragon Tower
- Enchant: Hero's Resolve
- Modifier: First Strike
Arclight Surge
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Tirion / Grommash | Tirion / Grommash | Tirion / Grommash | Cairne / Charlga | Cairne / Charlga | Cairne / Charlga | |
| Towers of Power | Towers of Power | Overclocked | Overclocked | Overclocked | Glass Cannons |
Family: Horde
Dungeon: Diremaul
PvP
- Tower: Dragon Tower
- Enchant: Hero's Resolve
- Modifier: First Strike
Arclight Surge
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Murkeye / Tirion | Murkeye / Tirion | Murkeye / Tirion | Jaina / Thalnos | Jaina / Thalnos | Jaina / Thalnos | |
| Glass Cannons | Glass Cannons | Gilded Armaments | Gilded Armaments | Gilded Armaments | Sappertime! |
Family: Blackrock
Dungeon: Deadmines
PvP
- Tower: Dragon Tower
- Enchant: Stonebind
- Modifier: First Strike
Arclight Surge
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Baron / Murkeye | Baron / Murkeye | Baron / Murkeye | Murkeye / Rend | Murkeye / Rend | Murkeye / Rend | |
| Sappertime! | Sappertime! | Bloodsport | Bloodsport | Bloodsport | Dragon's Hoard |
Family: Undead
Dungeon: Gnomeregan
PvP
- Tower: Dragon Tower
- Enchant: Stonebind
- Modifier: First Strike
Arclight Surge
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Drakkisath / Thalnos | Drakkisath / Thalnos | Drakkisath / Thalnos | Baron / Sneed | Baron / Sneed | Baron / Sneed | |
| Dragon's Hoard | Dragon's Hoard | Ding! | Ding! | Ding! | Towers of Power |
Family: Beast
Dungeon: Blackfathom Deeps
PvP
- Tower: Dragon Tower
- Enchant: Stonebind
- Modifier: First Strike
Arclight Surge
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday |
| Sneed / Rend | Sneed / Rend | Sneed / Rend | |
| Towers of Power | Towers of Power | Overclocked | Overclocked |
Version 4.5.0 Patch Notes
Rewards
- Daily Rewards now have a chance to grant large amounts of Coins, Mega Tomes, and very rarely a Mythic Tome!
- XP Gem bonuses have increased for the start and middle of the Player Level journey.
- Arc Energy rewards from PvP have increased from 200 to 1000.
- The Seasonal Emote has also moved to 12,000 Player Honor from 16,000!
- Heroic Campaign victories will also award 3 points of progress towards Daily Rewards, from 1.
Daily Offers
We’re making some initial improvements to the Daily Offers section, in the hopes it provides more attractive items, more frequently. Some key changes include:
- Legendary Cores and Mythic Tomes can now appear in the store (though very rarely!)
- Arclight Energy (and some other rare items) will have a small discount built into the purchase.
- Added Mini and XP combinations to the list of potential items; with the improvement to XP boosts, we hope this will provide a more predictable way to funnel XP into specific Minis.
- Reduced the amount of Rare Cores that can appear.
**Please note that some items may not appear until your account has been progressed a sufficient amount (total Sigils earned).
Quests
- Another round of Quest tuning to make difficulty more consistent.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a variety of text and localization related bugs.
Conclusion
Season 4 brings some bonuses to in-game rewards, one new unit, no balance changes to note, and no other words on further game improvements. This has been the case for every season up until now - putting out fires for big issues, as the content of the game becomes further and further away. Many players have now hit a bottleneck in terms of their progress as well. This means the only thing left is PvP, which has many things to be desired in terms of balance and rewards, or the final stages of the single player campaign where unit levels need to be quite high, and takes a very long time without paying.
So in conclusion, it looks like the timing of Warcraft Rumble did not align with the current landscape of mobile gaming, nor did it deliver quality to players that gave it a shot. Compounded with lack of resources, income, and active promotion from Blizzard, a potential scenario would mean that the game will fail to attract more (paying) players and will be a vicious cycle until its eventual end of service.
For transparency, our in-depth coverage of Warcraft Rumble is currently on hiatus for the foreseeable future.