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So honestly: why is Warhammer so popular? Without a doubt, when it comes to wargame popularity, Warhammer, including Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Age of Sigmar–and many, many other Games Workshop properties–are the big kids on the playground. Other games make a splash–there’s always Star Wars Legion and Marvel Crisis Protocol and Bolt Action–but nothing comes close to the multi-billion dollar company that is Games Workshop.
So how did this company, which started from such humble beginnings, basically getting their feet under them by being the UK distributor of Dungeons and Dragons, become such a behemoth in the miniatures games market?
In essence, why is Warhammer so popular?
1. Warhammer draws influence from everywhere–hits all the notes
Games Workshops Humble Beginnings and Influences
Games Workshop has often been accused of borrowing from other IPs, and I think that this is fair in a lot of ways (and unfair in others). There is no way that Warhammer Fantasy Battle could exist if it were not for Tolkien and Lord of the Rings (and this is to say nothing of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game). But, at the same time, it has been estimated (I don’t know why this is so hard to count) that there are between 600 and 1000 Black Library books set in Games Workshop properties. So, they borrow a lot from other IPs, but they’re no slouch in creating their own standalone properties.
Warhammer Fantasy
Warhammer Fantasy takes its inspiration from a lot of things, and the first thing you’ll notice is that Tolkien is front and center. There are all the Tolkien races, including dwarves and orks and men and dragons and elves–both high elves and wood elves.
But Warhammer Fantasy also was very broadly based on cultural myths and ideas that spread across the globe. The Warhammer Fantasy map is essentially the map of the world, with most of men living in the Holy Roman Empire, the Brettonian “King Arthur” knights coming from Britain, and the Aztec-influenced Lizardmen coming from Central America.
Warhammer 40k
There is literally so much here that I can’t think of half of it.
Start with Space Marines and trace them back to Starship Troopers: not the movie Starship Trooper (we’ll talk about that in a minute) but the book Starship Troopers. Power-armored soldiers launch down to the surface of alien worlds in drop pods, throwing rockets and mini-nukes around the battlefield.
But for the movie Starship Troopers, those troopers sure look an AWFUL lot like Cadians. I don’t know which came first, the chicken or the egg, but they definitely leaned into it. And they’re fighting bugs, which are essentially Tyranids. As for Imperial Guard, look at the Catachan, which came directly from Predator movies.
And I’ve written an entire article about how Warhammer 40k is heavily, heavily influenced by Dune. From the Emperor to the Navigators to the lack of AI to the aristocratic method of ruling worlds, there is SO much of Warhammer 40k that is adopted from Dune.
(Of course, there are influences that go the other way. Starcraft is essentially ported over from Space Marines, Tyranids, and Eldar.)
The point is: Warhammer 40k hits so many cultural touchstones that it’s not hard to see why people are drawn to it. Want to play a boardgame of Aliens? Space Hulk. Want cyberpunk gangs? Necromunda. Heck–want American Football? Blood Bowl.
2. Warhammer is the oldest major wargame on the market
Why is Warhammer so popular? It’s been around a LONG time.
To be clear, Warhammer didn’t invent tabletop wargaming and it’s not the first fictional universe to be set on a board with miniatures and a set of rules and dice. Wargames have been around for hundreds of years (read our History of Miniature Wargaming here).
But what Warhammer managed to do is to be the first big, successful miniature tabletop game to succeed, to grow, and to capture the imagination. There may be miniature games that are better (I have recently posted about how I think that Bolt Action is the best major wargame available) but none of them have the history and the staying power of Warhammer or Warhammer 40k.
So it’s a viscious circle: is Warhammer popular because it’s been around for so long? Or has it been around for so long because it’s popular?
The answer is a little bit of both. It came at a perfect time, with Games Workshop managing to score the amazing windfall of being the distributor of Dungeons and Dragons. That big score got them on the map, gave them the cash they needed to branch out and invest in their own games, and to set them off on the right foot.
And now, 40 years later, Games Workshop is a multi-billion dollar company that is publicly traded and churns out new models several times a week, and new games several times a year.
Success breeds success, and if Warlord Games or Atomic Mass Games was in the right place at the right time 40 years ago they would possibly be much bigger than they are right now.
3. Can play any type of game you want
This is really enormous in Warhammer’s favor and an answer to why is Warhammer so popular? To compare it to Bolt Action again, Bolt Action has two ways to play: the regular way, and Tank War. The closest thing that Warhammer has to it is the Star Wars wargaming franchise. They had fighter combat with X-Wing, they had capital ship combat in Armada, they have skirmish combat battles in Star Wars Legion, and it looks like they’re launching an even smaller-scale miniatures game–similar to Marvel Crisis Protocol–with Star Wars: Shatterpoint.
The difference is that X-Wing kind of faded when Armada came out, and Armada kind of faded out when Star Wars Legion came out. And, in my opinion, Atomic Mass Games is in serious danger of killing Star Wars Legion with Shatterpoint.
Meanwhile, if you want to play fantasy games, Warhammer Age of Sigmar is ready and waiting. Want to take that to the skirmish level? Warcry. Want sci-fi? Then you could do Warhammer 40k or, if you want “historical” sci-fi, there’s The Horus Heresy. Want them on a skirmish level? Try Kill Team OR Necromunda. They’re both skirmish, but they scratch different itches. Want a board game? Go with Warhammer Quest in any of its variants.
And that’s just the major games. I haven’t even mentioned Blood Bowl, Underworlds, Space Hulk, Adeptus Titanticus, Aeronautica Imperialis, and on and on. There are just SO MANY WAYS to play Warhammer that there’s no surprise it’s dominating the market. No other game system exploits their IP in such extensive ways.
And that’s to say nothing about their forays into the video game industry, especially the massive success of Total War Warhammer III, a AAA game that is based in the Warhammer Fantasy Old World. Games Workshop has a long history of video game adaptations: some good, like Space Marine, and some bad, like a lot of others.
4. Among the best miniatures in the business
Of course, this will always be up to personal preferences, but Games Workshop is currently producing some of the best models in the miniature wargaming marketplace. There are third-party retailers who do good stuff, like Creature Caster and a lot of 3D printers, but as for mass-market miniatures, Games Workshop is making the best in the business.
And it’s not just one IP that they’re making miniatures for–and that’s what makes them so remarkable. An Adeptus Titanicus model looks absolutely nothing at all like a Skaven special character, but they’re both phenomenal sculpts and they both show the strength of the miniature production shop. Even when models look similar, like Space Marines and Stormcast Eternals looking a little bit the same, both have amazing units. A Stormcast Annihilator looks distinct from a Bladeguard Veteran, even though they fill similar roles. No one would accuse one from stealing the look of the other, even though they’re both big burly soldiers wielding ornate shields. (Honestly, there have been big burly soldiers wielding ornate shields since ancient combat.)
Why is Warhammer so popular? A TON of great models.
5. People who were in it as kids are grown up with expendable income
Because of the age of Games Workshop and the fact that Warhammer has been around in some for more than 40 years and Warhammer 40k for more than 35 years, the kids who grew up interested in the game–kids like me, who got into it in Warhammer 40k 1st Edition–are now able to spend MUCH more money on it.
Now this is a two-edged sword because of the fact that, because Games Workshop knows this, they price their models not for entry-level kids but for adults with fulltime jobs. That’s not great. But it is what it is.
There is a huge amount of nostalgia in the Warhammer community, and whether you remember your first game of Space Hulk or Gorkamorka or Rogue Trader, there is a lot of opportunity to relive the past. And not just relive the past, but see the 35 years of advancement that the company has taken and launched Warhammer 40,000 into the stratosphere.
I’m someone who is somewhat like this: I played wargames in my teenage years up through my very early twenties and then left it for about twelve years. And I was so excited to come back and see all of the things that I still remembered were still there (the Catachans were the exact same models I’d bought excitedly a decade before) and some things were completely new. It’s a good combination.
So it may be depressing, but why is Warhammer so popular? Because former kids now have money.
6. There is just so much IP to get involved in
I have heard so many different estimates of how many books exist in the Black Library, anywhere between 600 and 1000. (I’ve written about the best books to get into the Black Library with, and the best books to get into the Horus Heresy series with.)
Honestly, this IP is the biggest cash cow that Games Workshop is sitting on top of. People ask all the time whether Games Workshop is going to collapse as 3D printing gets bigger, and I really don’t think that they are–because they own the IP that people want. Companies can make models that are proxies for Warhammer models–and a lot of companies do–but the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universe is so expansive and sought after that Games Workshop will always be leading the pack.
This, I’m 100% sure, is the reason why Games Workshop is so quick to send out cease and desist letters to people who encroach on their copyrights and trademarks. They are very well aware that they are making their money off the Emperor of Mankind’s story, despite the fact that there has never been a model or rules released for him. That’s what sells Warhammer, and it’s why Warhammer is so popular.
7. Games Workshop is really good at building hype and selling models
Not to be all corporate, but from a marketing perspective, Games Workshop is just really good at building hype for their products. They haven’t always been this way, but they seem to have tuned the dials perfectly to get the exact results they want, and they get them every time.
They have new models that they’re going to release. They tease them for a quarter or two. They might drop a leak of a blurry photo (I’m sure these are intentional). They spread some rumors that end up on Valrak’s channel. Then they have a big event with a live-streamed video feed where they show off the models. Then more hype for several more months. Then the boxed set starts showing up on social media channels–YouTubers, Instagram painters. Finally the pre-release is upon us and we are quick to gobble it up because maybe, just maybe, this will be like Cursed City and disappear for a year.
And meanwhile, the same thing has been happening with four other boxed sets, all staggered out so that there’s always some rumors, always some teases, always some releases.
Games Workshop has this down to a science and, love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re making money hand over fist.
8. Such a strong community
Now hear me out. There is an awful lot of the Warhammer community that I don’t like. There are the notorious YouTubers, podcasters, and Tweeters who really make everything miserable for the rest of us. There’s a big group of people who are committed, openly, to gatekeeping undesirable people from the game.
But I don’t waste my time with them. Yes, they exist, and some of them make a good living off of crapping on Games Workshop (despite the fact that they wouldn’t have a livelihood if Games Workshop didn’t exist). Instead, I am drawn to the people in the hobby who make things better for everyone. The people who are inviting of people of all genders, races, orientations, and nationalities.
Because it’s a really good community. And I’m proud to be a part of it. I’m grateful for the friendships that I have made in this hobby, most of which have been online, but many of which have also been at my FLGSs. There are good people everywhere. Sure, there will always be the Comic Book Guy who is annoyed you’re shopping in his store, but that’s by far the exception and not the rule.
9. Aren’t a lot of challengers–yet
Why is Warhammer so popular? One big reason is that no one is stepping up to take their crown.
It wasn’t always this way. I think back ten years ago when Privateer Press’s Warmachine and Hordes really looked like they were going to give Games Workshop a run for their money. And then… they evaporated.
The current company that seems like it’s making an effort to come after Games Workshop is One Page Rules, who are notable for basically being a proxy game with proxy miniatures–just different enough to be legal, but close enough to be recognizable.
But One Page Rules would be nothing without the 1000 books in the Black Library. As I said in my review of Kings of War: a game can be great fun, but if there’s no lore behind it, you’re not winning any fans. We live in an era of wargaming where lore sells games and gameplay is secondary.
Don’t believe me? The Great Wargaming Survey’s results showed that, if your gaming group is four people or less, then you actually play a wargame, on average, one a quarter! People are in this hobby for the lore, the painting and collecting, and playing the games is secondary. So companies like Mantic, whose selling point is “Warhammer Fantasy but easier”, or companies like One Page Rules, whose selling point is “All Warhammer games, but easier” aren’t going to win. You don’t win with rules. You win with lore and models.
