Is Battlegrounds Becoming Hearthstone’s Main Game Mode? Major Updates and Monetization!

The role of Battlegrounds in Hearthstone has been a peculiar one. The auto-battler within the Hearthstone client was clearly developed with limited resources and it has lacked a clear monetization plan, but it has nonetheless become extremely popular; even more popular than constructed Hearthstone – at least if we go by streaming numbers. (One might argue that the lack of monetization has been a major factor in this as compared to the endless need for card packs for Standard and Wild.)

Now, it seems that Blizzard is finally catching up to the popularity of the game they created. The reveal stream for United in Stormwind expansion was a strange experience: a stream that is all about the new cards for constructed started with an update about Battlegrounds, and a full quarter of the entire reveal stream was about Battlegrounds. This was unexpected and reflect an increased status for Battlegrounds in Blizzard’s plans.

What could possibly warrant such a change? Popularity? In a way, sure, but the main thing is the upcoming monetization of Battlegrounds.

The Monetization of Battlegrounds

As a surprise to exactly no one, video game companies make games in order to make money. Sure, many people working for them love games, and Blizzard used to have a reputation as a company that was always about games first and money second. Nonetheless, games have to make at least some money, and Battlegrounds has not been delivering.

The only monetized aspect of Battlegrounds has been Battlegrounds Perks. In a way, they are a pay-to-win mechanic, as unlocking four Hero options instead of two at the start of each game has a major effect on your win rate. However, the Perks can be purchased with in-game gold, and ever since the Rewards Track update last year, anyone who plays Battlegrounds on a regular basis has been able to gather enough in-game gold to buy the Perks every season without using any real money. That’s not a great monetization mechanic.

Now, monetization is coming to Battlegrounds!

Don’t worry, you can breathe a sigh of relief, it is all cosmetics. The first piece is available in the in-game shop right now: a pre-purchase of Bartender Ve’nari to replace Bob as your companion. It can be acquired either as a part of the big United in Stormwind bundle or as a separate purchase for €9.99. More Bartenders and dozens of Hero skins will follow starting from July 27, and some of them may actually be available in-game before Ve’nari.

It is currently unknown whether any of these can be purchased with gold or whether you need to buy them all with real money. Either way, this will open the floodgates to monetizing Battlegrounds: you can only buy Perks once per season, but dozens of Hero skins will mean plenty of things to spend money on.

Will the cosmetics be a success? Hero skins for constructed Hearthstone have been available for years, but nowadays they are mostly sold in bundles together with card packs, and some of the old ones are available for gold instead of money. Given the slow pace of new real money Hero skins for constructed, they do not appear to have been incredibly successful. Will Battlegrounds prove to be different? Time will tell. Hopefully, these will suffice to satisfy Blizzard’s monetization needs and the game itself will remain free-to-play.

Battlegrounds Breaking Ties With Constructed Hearthstone

The next major Battlegrounds update will see the game mode becoming even more independent. At first, most Battlegrounds minions were direct copies of constructed minions. Over time, Blizzard has started to experiment more with Battlegrounds-specific mechanics, and the revealed details about the next patch show that this path continues stronger than ever:

In an upcoming content patch, Battlegrounds will get all-new heroes and undergo a major rework of all minion Types. We will be swapping out over 30 existing minions for new ones specifically designed to play off the core fantasy of that Type and re-emphasize how the Types play, giving the entire mode a massive refresh.

Note that they are swapping out over 30 minions. Many of these minions may be copies of constructed minions that are now being replaced with Battlegrounds-specific minions, such as the upcoming new Briny Bootlegger and Nosy Looter.

Battlegrounds is maturing. It is no longer an auto-battler built upon constructed Hearthstone, but more and more an independent game that lives within the same client.

How Many Heroes Is Too Many?

There are currently more than 60 Heroes in Battlegrounds and more are coming. As an upside, that’s a lot of variety, and Hero balancing has been quite good so far with more than a dozen Heroes being top tier at a time. As a downside, it is getting hard to find a specific Hero to play with even with Battlegrounds Perks offering you four options at the start of the game.

The next major Battlegrounds update includes a small quality-of-life improvement in this regard, as it will make new Heroes available in every lobby for their first two weeks (as long as at least one of the players has Battlegrounds Perks).

This will be a welcome improvement for everyone! Content creators are obviously ecstatic, but new Heroes are fun for everyone, so Youtubers are far from the only ones who will benefit from this change.

Is Battlegrounds the Main Game Mode in Hearthstone Now?

Blizzard has talked about their desire to see Hearthstone as a platform before, and that vision is becoming reality. Hearthstone includes a collectible card game (Standard/Wild/Classic), an auto-battler / auto chess (Battlegrounds), and soon a roguelike (Mercenaries that has been delayed yet again, but is still coming eventually).

While constructed has been the main game mode since Hearthstone’s launch, such a distinction is becoming meaningless. As the various games within Hearthstone become monetized separately as well as together, it really is becoming a platform of at least semi-independent games.

All of this is great news for Battlegrounds! No matter how popular the game is, Blizzard needs a way to monetize it somehow, and if their cosmetics monetization plan works, the core gameplay of Battlegrounds can remain free and will receive the resources it needs to keep it relevant for years to come!