Today we start to take a look at the state of the game for which we use stats from July 3rd until today (October 13th). That's about a month after the last releases came out and nothing else has changed in the game until now (not counting people proxying the upcoming boxes).
Who were the most popular affiliations?
Avengers unsurprisingly win the popularity award with 1881 games played during the selected time frame.
They are a core box faction, are composed of a tonne of beloved characters, offer three distinct strong and fun leaderships plus a more niche one that's still sometimes useful. And some very good TTCs on top of it. Avengers rarely lead the meta in terms of win rate, though they seldomly fall out of the top third there, but play rate is basically always high.
The second place in this category is claimed by Criminal Syndicate, who firmly established themselves as the number 1 bad guy Affiliation with 1564 games played. While they aren't an especially easy affiliation to buy into pretty much similar to Avengers they offer a wide spread of characters and two and a half very distinct and strong leaderships (MODOKs is probably not as good and as influential on your roster build as SLDDs or Kingpins and Klaw is having a very rough time without E secures in the game). Add an almost insane group of affiliated TTCs and you have your most competitive and most played affiliation of baddies. Having gained Mephisto (who has his best home under Shadowland Daredevil) and Loki 2 in the last year has only made them better and both Prowler and especially Echo look like further improvements to an already strong Affiliation.
Ranking third are the Uncanny X-Men, whose play rate will probably only go up after the new starter sets come out, with 1403 games played. X-Men are the favorite team of most Marvel fans, and the reason many of us have even started playing this game.They are also clearly AMGs second favorite child getting new models every year and having the model kits with by far the most personalization options. And while no single Mutant is as popular as Spider-Man and the team overall maybe lost a little bit of an edge to the Avengers thanks to the MCU I would still describe the Mutant "cosmos" of Marvel it's most beloved.
I don't think the same can really be said for the Inhumans who take the next spot with 1236 games played. I don't know a lot of people who would say that they are particularly great fans of the Inhumans in the comics or who could even name a few. Even inside the MCP Community for quite some time. That has drastically changed since their last box dropped making them one of the top affiliations in the game. I wouldn't count out some people being genuinely lovers of the characters but an absolute majority of the games here have been played because Inhumans are just incredibly strong in the game in its current state.
It's probably a mix between being incredibly strong and being beloved for Servants of the Apocalypse who just lost in popularity to the Inhumans by a mere 6 games with 1230 games played. I think many of the Mutant lovers in the community are playing Servants at the moment as it is pretty clear that they are the strongest Mutant affiliation in the games current state.
Midnight Sons who sport by far the most interesting earth based heroes in their Affiliation list are very popular with 1228 games played.
Defending the streets of New York City and also the Galaxy from cosmic Threats are the Defenders who have seen a huge increase in popularity ever since Doctor Strange (who is universally beloved) got his update. Getting three new characters soon will definitely help keeping the hype train rolling here. 1120 games were played with Defenders in the chosen time frame.
Only rank 8 in popularity seems very low for the Web Warriors but have no fear: everyone, their mum, their dog and their dogs mum will be playing them shortly when they get no less than 5 new (all strong) models and a bunch of TTCs one of which a very strong new leadership. They also only lost out to the Defenders by a mere two games with 1118 games played.
1065 games for my personal main Affiliation Guardians of the Galaxy purely comes from Nova being affiliated 😉 and probably because they are a wildly beloved team of misfits due to their mostly excellent comics (especially the Abnett/Lanning and Ewing runs) and 2 of 3 great movies (that I still have problems with but they were good watches anyhow).
Following close behind and ready to overtake very soon are the Spider-Foes with 1055 games. A number that will only increase with the release of the Spider-Foes Starter set. They are the Affiliation with the highest average quality of sculpts. In other words they look the best.
These were the teams with 1k+ games in the selected time frame and we see quite a drop after them with no other Affiliation reaching 800.
Brotherhood of Mutants lead the rest here with 786 games. Their new box hasn't fully resurrected the affiliation in the way AMG in interviews seems to have hoped and expected. All of the contents in the box are good in my opinion but not enough to get the affiliation out of a rough place in the current meta.
Not nearly as popular as with unnerfed Thor 2 and E maps still in the game Asgard still has a loyal following which carried it to 751 games. They are still one of the most fun teams to play in the game in my opinion where almost everyone can throw stuff and or characters around and what is more fun than that?
Wakanda probably deserves to be played a lot more being a top tier competitive affiliation but I can imagine their strongest list being locked behind a 100$ pay wall for one very good model, one very mediocre model (on the table, the sculpt is great) and a terrain piece that's barely usable is keeping the numbers here lower than they probably should be. 728 games is of course still more than many Affiliations got in the time frame.
Cabal has an image problem. Red Skull is pretty universally hated as a character which makes playing the affiliation a tough sell for many people apparently even though it's a core box Affiliation and Red Skull Master of the World not only has a fantastic leadership but is definitely among the best models in the EMCS aside from that. Their wide attrition play style appears to currently be better played under Shadowland Daredevil in Criminal Syndicate but I still think Cabal is a strong Affiliation and has an insanely deep Affiliation list. But aside from Baron Zemo many of their best models are high threat and there's only so many of those you can put in your roster and keep it working properly. They just missed the mark on 600 games with 597.
SHIELD sits at a for me surprisingly low 426 games which is weird given their popularity in our German/ Austrian meta. I kind of get it though as it's weird to play the mostly normal humans with guns in a superhero game. But realistically nowadays it's usually Namor, Spectacular Spider-Man, Nick Fury and Baron Zemo which is definitely more superhero like.
Following close behind as another not typical superhero team are the Wizards of the Convocation with 418 games.
Hydra has the same (totally understandable) image problem that Cabal has but with a way shorter list of affiliated characters (though finally some distinction between them). They are a fun Affiliation to play though and offer many shenanigans. 359 games played.
X-Force are in a rough spot in terms of competitive play but they still have a somewhat loyal fan base even though their play rate numbers do face a downward trend with 354 games played.
Thralls of Dracula win the popularity award of the three remaining "everyone is in" Affiliations probably on the back of people liking Dracula a lot. Enough for 318 games played in the time frame.
One of the biggest and coolest Affiliations in the game is A-Force whose low number of 317 games I find unjustified. It is pretty easy to play mostly the same characters in mostly the same way under Steve 1 Avengers which gives you less of a headache so I guess that's where a lot of potential A-Force players go.
Seeing how it's currently very trendy to have Dormammu in your list for a Dark Dimension flex 261 games show that it is rarely actually used.
I recently got my badge for 10 games with Legion of the Lost and I have to say I get their low number of 256 games played in the time frame. It's barely more than playing unaffiliated with the leadership and you could arguably use the TTC slot in your 5 for something more impactful. Mephisto is a very fun character to play though and being able to bring anyone and still have a leadership at all is strong in its own way.
And now we enter the below 200 games club starting with the Winter Guard at 194. As I always say in my stats articles: they need help and will probably get some with the 2026 character re release updates.
New Mutants are patiently awaiting more releases which I'm sure we'll see some of at Ministravaganza. 175 games played.
Nothing much indicating that Weapon X play rate will increase from the 148 games played in the time frame anytime soon. Maybe at Ministravaganza we see an update to fix the leadership? I wouldn't count on it.
Sentinels will not be anywhere near their low numbers here after March 26 the latest when their Affiliation list has been doubled and the MK4s have updated cards.
Hellfire Club needs some affiliated TTCs to make it worth considering them over other Mutant teams. Hopefully Sebastian Shaw is in the pipeline. 138 games played.
And beaten by a single game Black Order sit at the very end of the popularity chart with a mere 137 games played.
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