BoLS logo Tabletop, RPGs & Pop Culture
Advertisement

Warhammer 40K: Metawatch – The Year’s Biggest Winners Are…

3 Minute Read
Dec 1 2022
Advertisement

GW is back with some Warhammer 40K Metawatch data. But the big news is the year’s biggest winners and most popular armies!

GW is back with the last Metawatch of the year, and there is a lot of good stuff to go over.  As usual, we get the updates of how the factions are doing since the last blance dataslate came out. Slowly but surely more and more factions are moving into the “all good” category of between 45-55% win ratio. But as you can tell we still have some troublemakers out there on the the high and low end:

The Current Meta – End of 2022

On the high end, we have Tzeentch, Chaos Daemons and Leagues of Votann running circles around everyone else. On the low end we have a handful of sad sack Space Marines, including Dark Angels, Space Wolves, and Deathwatch. But they do have the Ad Mech to share their misery. Luckily GW never lets Space Marines sit things out for too long. I”m sure they have a new codex waiting in the wings.

2022 Year in Review

But the big reveal was the total year to date statistics. There are some surprises in there, as well as an idea of how large a dataset GW is pulling from these days.  Take a look at these numbers:

Most Popular Armies

It’s no real surprise that Space Marines are the perennial super stars of 40K. They look great and come in so many colors and flavors! But the others were nice to get confirmation on. GW says these are the game’s most popular factions:

  1. Adeptus Astartes (17%)
  2. Tyranids
  3. T’au Empire
  4. Adeptus Custodes
  5. Necrons

Tyranids have also been a long time popular faction and it’s no surprise to see them in the #2 spot. I would expect to see such a popular faction get more attention in the rules and new models department so hopefully 10th Edition will do wonders for them. To me the biggest surprise is T’au at #3, and Custodes at #4.  T’au are known as a difficult army to play, so their model range must really be drawing players in. Custodes is easier to understand – being the UBER-uber men of 40K and easy to paint as well. Necrons at #5 is great to see,and remember they did get a massive push with the range redo and inclusion in the 9th Starter box.

2022 Annual Win Percentages

First off, GW says they have over 100,000 players and 350,000 games of data to base this chart on. That’s enough to call “statistically relevant”!

Advertisement

Here we are at last. We’ve had more rules updates, FAQs, and balance updates this year that you can shake a fist at. Here’s the 2022 winners and losers. What a sad year to be a Space Marine or Astra Militarum. And WOW – Harlequins on top for the entire year. It’s like its 1989 all over again when they last hit the table like a thunderbolt! Let’s throw on 1989’s  Pump Up The Jam in celebration of the return of the Year of the Clowns!

The Solitaire says TURN IT UP!

Advertisement

Avatar
Author: Larry Vela
Advertisement
  • Warhammer: Armies On Parade 2023 Schedule Announced