Hearthpwn is a community site for the popular digital collectible card game Hearthstone. It was founded in 2013 as the only complete Hearthstone card database at the time.
Let’s take a closer look at how Hearthpwn.com came to be what it is today, how to use it to become a better player, what the Hearthstone community thinks about it, and other great alternatives. Here you go:
History
Hearthstone, the game on which Hearthpwn.com is based, is wildly popular. Since its official release in March 2014, it has garnered over 100 million registered users.
It has 4.5 million active players each month. At any given minute, there are between 130,000 and 280,000 people playing the card game.
Apart from being popular, Hearthstone is also very profitable. Although Hearthstone’s parent company doesn’t always post its yearly revenue, it was estimated that in 2018 the game had made more than $650 million in mobile revenue since its release.
This statistic excludes China, which is often Hearthstone’s biggest market. Another way to look at it is that as of 2018, Hearthstone players, including those in China, had spent over $400,000 each day on the mobile site.
These statistics are impressive because this revenue amount comes from mobile only, and we haven’t yet counted the revenue that comes from PC users. The statistics are all the more impressive when you consider that the revenue from Hearthstone predictably grows year after year.
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Hearthstone is owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The game is based on the 1994 Warcraft series also owned and managed by Blizzard Entertainment.
The game’s original name was Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Apart from the Warcraft franchise, Blizzard Entertainment also owns three other franchises: Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch.
Where does Hearthpwn.com come in? Although the website is based on the Hearthstone game, it’s not owned by Blizzard Entertainment.
Hearthpwn.com functions as a versatile community site for Hearthstone players and enthusiasts. It was launched even before Hearthstone’s official 2014 release, in 2013.
Hearthpwn.com’s earlier versions were based on beta versions of the Hearthstone game. Independently-run community sites dedicated to online games, like Hearthpwn.com, are quite common.
Hearthpwn.com was originally owned by Curse LLC, which also owned 65 other gaming-related websites. At one point in 2016, 30 million gamers interacted through Curse LLC’s assets every month through news, guides, and databases.
Eventually, in 2016, Curse LLC was acquired by Twitch Interactive which is a subsidiary of Amazon. Twitch Interactive owns Twitch, a popular live streaming service for gaming.
Through its ownership of Curse, Twitch Interactive became in charge of Hearthpwn.com. However, only two years later in 2018, Twitch Interactive decided to sell Curse Media and all its associated assets to the Wiki hosting service, Fandom, formerly known as Wikia.
With this sale, Twitch Inc. began to focus exclusively on live streaming instead of the general end-to-end gaming experience. On the other hand, Fandom added Curse Media to its repertoire to expand its community-based business operations.
Unfortunately, less than a year later in 2019, Curse, as affiliated with Fandom, decided to archive Hearthpwn.com, along with other websites. Curse’s explanation for shutting down Hearthpwn.com was, “The decision to archive the site was difficult but unfortunately we are unable to justify the engineering resources required to keep the site live.”
Luckily for community members, that was not the end of Hearthpwn.com. The decision to archive the site was shelved and Curse/Fandom sold it to Magic Find, a company that specializes in managing gaming-related websites.
Magic Find is Hearthpwn.com’s current owner. Magic Find also owns the following gaming website brands: mmo-champion.com, Minecraft Forum, Overframe, MTG Salvation, and Diablo Fans.
All in all, Magic Find manages over 10 million monthly active users across all its gaming website properties. Hearthpwn.com has finally found a great home.
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Reviews
Hearthstone exploded in popularity because of its fun yet comprehensive properties. It was one of the first digital collectible card games (CCGs) to become very well-known and it paved the way for numerous other games such as Clash Royale and Artifact.
To play Hearthstone well, you need a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of each of the intricacies of the game. It’s very hard to understand these on your own.
Furthermore, new cards are released on a weekly basis. This potentially means that a card deck that works well in one week could fail the next week.
That you have to learn so much so often to be a successful Hearthstone player is why Hearthpwn.com is indispensable if you’d like to do well in the game. Key aspects of Hearthpwn.com are the constant updates offered by both the management team and players who volunteer information to the site.
As already mentioned, Hearthpwn.com was the first complete database of Hearthstone cards. It has kept up high standards since.
Gaming communities like Hearthpwn.com are so beloved because of the necessary niche they fill. They offer a chance for gamers to come together to exchange knowledge.
This exchange enhances the gamers’ enjoyment of games they enjoy. They also facilitate healthy competition which prevents the game from stagnating.
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Gamers have also been known to form lifelong friendships with one another through these community websites. It’s easy enough to identify gamers with similar interests and skill levels and even meet them in real life through gaming conventions that happen in real life.
These online connections can be life-saving, especially during times like the COVID pandemic when many offline connections dwindled due to quarantine mandates. Hearthpwn.com allows you to safely interact with other users through the username you choose when you sign up for an account.
For the most dedicated gamers, independent sites like Hearthpwn.com also offer a chance to earn or boost income through their passion. If you are already a good Hearthstone player, you can use Hearthpwn.com to become better and collect foolproof decks.
Eventually, if you decide to take part in tournaments this could mean winning prize money. A few select users may even take up playing moderating roles.
A misconception that many people make is that independent community gaming sites are not as important as the gaming websites that they’re based on. This is untrue.
Instead, the truth is that independent gaming communities like Hearthpwn.com have formed symbiotic relationships with game owners and developers. They feed off one another’s ideas and suggestions.
This is why, for example, Hearthpwn.com has had a news column since its inception. Many Hearthstone players get their news about the game from Hearthpwn.com before they get it from the game’s website itself.
The presence of comment sections under each category means that many gamers provide active feedback to updates. Hearthpwn.com also has very active forums.
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The openness that characterizes many community gaming websites matches the original egalitarian ethos of the internet. It’s probably why so many of these websites developed independently at first; to allow everybody who is in any way invested in a particular game to have an opinion about it.
For Hearthstone players, Hearthpwn.com is without a doubt the premier community site for Hearthstone. A good chunk of Hearthpwn.com’s appeal comes down to the first mover’s advantage.
Hearthpwn.com was founded a year before Hearthstone.com’s official release in 2013. Its first version used beta versions of the game to create its database.
It runs parallel to and independent of the main Blizzard-owned Hearthstone.com. As mentioned in the ‘History’ section above, Hearthpwn.com has been owned by a succession of companies and is currently owned by Magic Find, which also owns a number of other gaming website brands.
If you’d like to learn how to play Hearthstone, you can watch veteran gamers on Twitch playing the game as they explain their steps. Chances are such players are gaming influencers who may have been sponsored by Hearthstone’s new Creator Program to promote the game.
However, to really get to the next level you will need trusty old Hearthpwn.com. This is because the site maintains an evolving repertoire of card decks that can make all the difference.
The kind of technical by-the-moment know-how provided by pro players on Twitch is necessary to do well as a Hearthstone player. However, the cornerstone of the game is the cards.
For a Hearthstone player, it’s more important to learn how to grow and maintain an ideal card collection. It is a collectible card game (CCG) after all.
Buying these cards is a costly investment for each player. Although Blizzard often gives out free packs of cards, especially to new and returning players, each player often has to fork out some real money to enjoy Hearthstone to the fullest.
This area is where Hearthpwn.com shines the brightest. It offers a thorough overview of available cards and decks, sometimes with explanations about what makes a deck special.
Hearthpwn.com is a true community. All the content is user-generated.
The most popular Hearthstone decks being chosen by its users are placed on Hearthpwn.com’s front page. The decks are also divided into Hearthstone’s 9 hero classes, meaning if you click on any of the nine classes, the page will display decks from that class only.
You only have to be a registered user on Hearthpwn.com to compile a deck. You can also choose to explain why you chose to compile a deck in a particular way.
Hearthpwn.com’s Deck Builder is truly outstanding. It allows you to simulate everything you’d do in the Hearthstone game.
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There are many active forums available for both Hearthstone players and enthusiasts. There’s an extensive discussion for the following topics: Standard Format, Wild Format, the Arena, Tavern Brawl, Monster Hunt, Dungeon Run, and Fireside Gatherings.
You can also join forum discussions for each of the nine classes. These include Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Druid, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, and Warlock.
Hearthpwn.com is able to function as a community site by working as a database, deck builder, news site, and more. It also provides raw stats for players to make decisions about which cards to acquire.
Another great feature of Hearthpwn.com is its Arena Simulator, which as implied by the name allows you to simulate Hearthstone’s iconic game mode, ‘The Arena.’ It’s one of four game modes and was formerly known as ‘The Forge.’
Although Hearthpwn.com’s great features make it valuable and indispensable for players of all skill levels, there are a few criticisms to remember.
Blizzard Entertainment has way more resources to run the game Hearthstone than Hearthpwn.com has to run its own site. This means that Hearthpwn.com may at times struggle to organically keep up with the rapidly evolving and multifaceted nature of Hearthstone.
When Hearthstone was first officially released, it was rather barebones. In the years since, it’s become quite complicated as it began to encompass more modes and expansions.
Numerous Reddit reports indicate that while Hearthpwn.com is fine to use on a desktop computer, it gets very buggy on mobile devices. These reports are a few years old but they’re worth remembering if you’re having a hard time using the site on your smartphone or tablet.
There’s also a small chance that you may get scammed on the website. Apply all the usual internet safety tips when trading cards with others.
Finally, Hearthpwn.com was caught up in a bit of controversy with long-time lead moderator Robert Veitch, whose alias is Fluxflashor. The controversy happened around the time the site almost shut down in 2019.
Although Hearthpwn.com survived this near-shutdown by being sold to Magic Find, it led to a massive exodus of longtime staff. This means that Hearthpwn.com is currently not run by the same people who helped it grow into what it is today.
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Alternatives
Hearthpwn.com is obviously a great resource for Hearthstone players. However, in light of some of the criticism leveled against it in the past, it’s worth considering other options.
Another reason you might want to consider Hearthstone gaming resources beyond Hearthpwn.com is the fact that many of the best gamers have to combine different resources to achieve good plays. If you’d like to improve your performance, you’d probably have to do something similar.
Hearthpwn.com is great on its own. However, it works even better if you use it at the same time as other sites.
These alternatives are varied and diverse. There’s something for everyone, including you!
Enjoy:
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1. Out Of Cards
After Fluxflashor (alias for Robert Veitch), a longtime moderator of Hearthpwn.com left the site around the time it almost shut down, he founded Out of Cards. A group of volunteer staff who also left Hearthpwn.com decided to join him.
Out of Cards distinguishes itself from Hearthpwn.com in two main ways. First, it’s optimized for mobile in a way that Hearthpwn.com is not.
Second, the site focuses on other games apart from Hearthstone such as Magic: The Gathering Arena.
You can offer support to the site through Patreon.
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2. playhearthstone.com
Hearthpwn.com is a good source of Hearthstone-related news. But what if you went straight to the horse’s mouth?
Blizzard Entertainment, the owner and publisher of Hearthstone, maintains a pretty good handle on anything related to Hearthstone, right on the game’s own website. Apart from news, you can also access forums, fireside gatherings, and even the Blizzard-sponsored Creator Program for Hearthstone gamers.
3. Hearthstone Top Decks
As the name implies, this is a site dedicated mainly to compiling and sorting Hearthstone card decks.
It also provides news and articles related to Hearthstone.
4. Vicious Syndicate
Vicious Syndicate is an excellent community website for Hearthstone players. It’s especially amazing if you are a dedicated player or enthusiast.
The site focuses on community-led data collection and data analysis. It also focuses on producing high-quality content on Hearthstone to increase its community’s knowledge of the game.
It also maintains decks.
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5. HSReplay.net
The interesting thing about HS Replay is that there are no forums or discussions, unlike Hearthpwn.com. Instead, it’s full of stats that players can use to improve their gameplay.
Hearthpwn.com is entirely web-based. On the other hand, HSReplay.net requires that you download a companion deck tracker.
This is because it works in real time. The in-game tracker monitors your deck and gameplay, and uploads the data directly to HSReplay.net.
It does the same for other players. You can then view one another’s decks.
This approach makes an astounding amount of data available. When you click on a class category, you can see results reaching hundreds of thousands.
6. Hearthcards
Hearthcards.net is a nice little website that allows you to make custom cards for your gameplay.
You choose either a class or dual class, a card name, or an optional type, then you input Cost, Attack and Health values, card rarity, etc.
Hearthcards.net is well-loved because of its fun seamless interface as well as its usefulness.
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7. Tempo Storm
Tempo Storm is a professional esports organization. It has fielded teams in many games including Hearthstone.
Through its ‘Meta Snapshots’ series it updates players on the best decks, which it divides into different strength tiers. The strongest tier is Tier S, which Tempo Storm calls “God Tier,” followed by Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4, and Tier 5 in decreasing order of strength.
In gaming, “meta” means, “a generally agreed upon strategy by the community.” It’s the strategy that is generally considered the best way to do well at a specific gaming challenge.
Tempo Storm’s Meta reports come for both Standard and Wild Hearthstone decks. These reports come from expert professional players who are each designated a special Hearthstone class.
Tempo Storm’s Meta reports regularly appear on Hearthpwn.com, on the front page.
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8. HearthSim
Are you both a developer and a Hearthstone gamer or enthusiast? Then you will love HearthSim.
It’s a small online community of developers who enjoy Hearthstone. They mainly build simulators for Hearthstone.
They also make use of AI. You can find them on IRC or Discord.
9. Hearthstone Meta Decks
Some people in the gaming community use ‘meta’ as an acronym for ‘most effective tactics available.’ That’s a handy way to describe Hearthstone Meta Decks.
The Berlin-based gaming community divides its decks into top decks, budget decks, quest decks, and fresh decks. This fun yet clever naming system works extremely well.
You don’t have to be a registered user to submit a deck to Hearthstone Meta Decks. The submission process is extremely straightforward.
Hearthstone Meta Decks works with an app called Track-o-bot which tracks your games and makes them available via a web interface. If you use Track-o-bot, you can share your game data with them so that they can find a win rate for the decks in their library.
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10. Hearthstone Meta Stats
This website is a great place to find stats to use as you’re playing Hearthstone. It’s very beginner-friendly as well.
11. Hearthstone Videos
This is a fun, quirky site where Hearthstone videos are linked. Here, you will find videos of all kinds in many different languages.
12. Competitive Hearthstone subreddit
Don’t underestimate the power of this subreddit. It’s one of the largest and most active subreddits on the site.
Its members overlap with those of other Hearthstone community sites. Here, you are likely to come across a bit of Hearthstone news or data that you won’t find elsewhere.
Professional Streamers
Sometimes, the best way to learn how to play Hearthstone well isn’t through a website like Hearthpwn.com which can get jargony, especially for beginners. A great and easy way to familiarize yourself with the game is by simply watching the best players on sites like Twitch TV.
Even if you aren’t a beginner, you are guaranteed to pick up new tips, tricks, and skills. In this way, professional streamers are an excellent alternative to sites like Hearthpwn.com.
You can also watch Hearthstone competitions like the Blizzcon Annual Hearthstone Championship. There’s a $250,000 prize pool.
Maybe you will someday win the first prize of $100,000!
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Language-specific Alternatives
Many language-specific alternatives to Hearthpwn.com also exist. These include Hearthstoneheroes.de for German speakers, Hearthstonehungary.hu for Hungarian speakers, Hearthstone.cz for Czech speakers, and Hearthgid.com for Russian speakers.
Wrapping Up
There you have it folks. A comprehensive look at Hearthpwn.com.
Now you know almost everything about the site: how it came to be, how it works, what people think about it, and where to look if you need other options.
Consider registering an account with this amazing website to become a better Hearthstone player. Hearthstone’s Tavern awaits!