Your Chances of Winning a Hearthstone Match if You Go First

Who goes first in turn-based games has always been a point of contention, but Ars Technica crunched the numbers for professional Hearthstone matches.

Their full analysis is pretty interesting overall, but they found that the first player won 110 out of 219 recorded matches. They admit that's a razor-thin margin, and that their figures could be a bit off. Blizzard claims that there's a 6% advantage for amateur leagues and a 2.6% advantage for professionals. That's not consistent across all classes however, and some decks, namely Rogues and Paladins, are actually better when they take second slot.

Balancing online games is a constant struggle for developers, but it's cool to see a company get so granular with their analyses, and actively try to help even it out.

You're reading Numbers, a blog on Kotaku that examines games and culture through the lens of math and statistics.