The RTS Genre Is Now A Thing Of The Past; Here’s Why

Sometimes it seems as though some of the most creative and entertaining experiences of the late 90s and early 2000s were games that belonged to the RTS genre. I’m thinking of seminal titles like Age of Empires, Starcraft, or even Age of Mythology if we’re feeling a bit adventurous.

These were all incredible games that themselves laid a solid foundation for the genre as a whole, and many of their sequels would go on to evolve it even further.

Age of Empires II is hands down one of the greatest games ever made, and while I personally never got into it, StarCraft II’s impact on the esports world cannot be understated.

And there were many many other titles along the way as well. The Command & Conquer series is iconic for its over-the-top narratives and incredible single-player campaigns, and the Stronghold series, with its emphasis on castle management, has a very special place in my own heart.

But something changed over the years and the genre is not nearly as big as it once was. Studios are simply not making these games at the frequency they once used to, and truly great RTS games seem to be few and far between.

So What Happened To The RTS Genre?

It would be very easy to point fingers and blame one factor or the other for this decline.

Some people think that the rise of console gaming is partially to blame for this, as many people moved away from mouse and keyboard and onto controllers that are not as compatible with RTS games.

But the rebuke here is that there are some incredibly responsive RTS ports on consoles and that PC gaming has been on the upswing for a long time now.

So why then, is the genre still in decline when there are more PC gamers now than ever before?

Others have blamed the rise of competitive gaming as a cause, which I am personally more likely to believe even if I don’t fully blame it as the main reason. It can be called the split between the immersive and competitive RTS audiences if we like.

Re: Riot layoffs, things to think about.

It hasn't released its earnings report for 2023 yet.

But, it was reported that League of Legends mobile generated $1 billion in revenue (that's 1 game) as per pocketgamerhttps://t.co/Wm8Fh1EIEU https://t.co/TXsyJJHRBp

— Jeffrey Rousseau (@JRpotential) January 23, 2024

One of the best examples of this is the original Dota, which was actually a mod for Warcraft III and it blew up so much that it went on to become its very own thing. Its sequel, Dota 2, is one of the biggest games on the planet and draws in millions of players on the regular.

And when faced with so much success, what else are you supposed to do but capitalize on it?

Immersive Vs. Competitive RTS Gaming

So with the advent of multiplayer gaming and hyper-competitive titles like Starcraft, developers realized that there was a market for fast-paced games of the sort, and they were incredibly lucrative. 

So there was a split within the RTS audience, between those who wanted mechanical and fast-paced titles with an emphasis on multiplayer, and those who wanted more traditional experiences with an emphasis on simulations, creating stories, and base building.

And it’s here that I think that things start to get really interesting.

Because I believe that modern MOBAs like Dota 2 and League of Legends are in many ways the purest distillations of the competitive side of this split. People wanted the breakneck action with none of the base building and none of the extensive skill trees, and they got it.

On the other hand, those who wanted more of these things went with the immersive side. If someone has a taste for grand strategy or simulations, then series like Crusader Kings, Civilization, and even indie titles like the recently released Manor Lords are there for them.

Those Left Behind

So when we talk about the decline of the RTS genre as we all knew it, what we should instead talk about is the middle ground between the immersive and competitive audiences.

Both sides have found games that cater to their specific niches, and there are players left behind who don’t adhere to either side. There is a casual middle ground here that is no longer catered to as it once was because developers thought it wasn’t worth it anymore. But I don’t think that’s really true.

One of the best examples of a game that walks this middle ground is Age of Empires IV, which is perhaps one of the only truly classic RTS to come out in the past decade.

Age of Empires IV today has set the second highest concurrent players number ever for an Xbox Studios Game on Steam

Top 5
1. Halo MCC – 161,024
2. Age of Empires IV – 69,366
3. Sea of Thieves – 66,906
4. Microsoft Fight Simulator – 61,829
5. Forza Horizon 4 – 40,399 pic.twitter.com/3XHlOYSCvg

— Benji-Sales (@BenjiSales) October 30, 2021

We don’t have exact sales figures because Microsoft has not made them available, but I don’t think it takes much to understand that It didn’t sell tens of millions of copies even if it did fairly well enough. 

But well enough is not enough these days, especially for Microsoft who just yesterday shut down 4 of their own internal studios.

And therein lies the entire conundrum. These games will not do MOBA numbers, they will not stay relevant for decades, nor generate billions of dollars, so why would anyone want to make more of them? In a perfect world, creativity and a love of the genre would triumph here, but we don’t live in one.

The decline of the RTS genre is simply another symptom of a twisted industry that values the numbers going up more than they care about creating fun games.