With such a focus on in-person, competitive play, it’s curious to see a different trend just on the horizon. TCGs are starting to embrace solo or cooperative play more and more, and I’m intrigued to see where it goes through 2025.
Depends on how you mean it. They might rise in popularity among current players but it seems unlikely that they would pull solo players away from with LCGs (Marvel Champions etc). Those have the market cornered and their business model is arguably a better fit.
There’s a tactile experience to playing physical card games that digital games can’t replicate. Not to mention the social atmosphere at a local game store is more conducive to making friends than most digital games. I’ve found the only digital games that really let me connect with anyone are the ones where the voice chat feature is well implemented and well used. Voice chat is a given in physical spaces. =) edit: typo
The games I mean are physical too.
LCG=living card game. The most popular ones are Marvel Champions, LOTR: The Card Game and Arkham Horror: The Card Game. They are similar to TCGs in many ways but they tend to be coop/solo and their business model is different: instead of random packs you get fixed sets (so you know exactly what you are getting) and often in a larger boxes that may also include new opponents or challenges. These expansions are usually highly thematic and designed to work together.