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Morning/evening Dakka,

So a few of us have noticed lately that 40k seems to be dying out locally. So I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this trend as well or is it just locally. Admittedly some of the local guys have started playing games AoS have enjoyed it.

No. If anything, it's growing in this area. Lots of players who quit ages ago picking up the game again.

It's very much dying out for me, I never saw tournaments have to be cancelled for lack of attendance until 7th edition. Pickup gaming is basically nonexistent and everything has to be pre-negotiated through Facebook or something and all sorts of restrictions ironed out beforehand in ways not necessary in older editions.

It is dying rapidly where I am. Not due to pricing or new GW rules or anything like that. It's due to my store's other player base driving the tabletop crowd out in general. Table space is limited and the 40K community is very small. We had dedicated tables, but this other player base decided to move them and ended up breaking one of our tables. Now we are down to two tables stuck in the corner of the store while every month our gaming space gets smaller.

Finally after years and years it is. Although I can't say I blame my FLGS with the weird people showing up and ruining it for everyone. I think this is a local problem more than a 40k problem. I do know a few people who recently quit 40k though since they didn't like the fluff changes. One of them devastated by Cadia getting blown up (another IG player I know).

If I could find a nice community with a lack of weridos that was close to me I would be out there playing. Or even just a minimal amount of them.

On Frontline they said in their old place it wasn't uncommon to have drunk people knocking on the windows while they worked and other stranger stuff still and I can definitely say this town seems to be heading worse than that a lot of other stores and brands (not nerd related) are considering or have already pulled out.

I was talking to my cousin about this and him and his friends are all starting to lament just how many friggen weird people are around now.

So maybe OP there could be unseen environmental factors in the death of a community. So make sure you know why its dying out and talk to people if you can.

There's been growth in our area. Lots of old people coming back, and getting new people every few months. Additionally AoS is going strong. Definitely stronger than it has been in the last five years.

Not around here. It's definitely growing, though not HUGELY or anything.

The new releases are driving people's interests, and kids are still starting the game up. Just today I saw a store employee helping a kid assemble some Necrons [an anecdote, I know].

Interestingly, Age of Sigmar seems to not be taking away players from 40k very much here; it might actually be adding some, as no club or store is fully dominated by either, so there's lots of close proximity games of both, so players get to talk and get along quite easily, chat about how recent games went, and what recent releases they're looking forward to.

I admit, that this is because my area is part of a big metro area, and focused around the bigger of two GW stores in the metro, as well as Facebook groups, several clubs, large independent annual tournaments, and a few independent retailers with some physical gaming space. If my area were smaller, or less transit-friendly, or the gaming community less motivated, I'd be less confident to say the game is growing here.

It is basically dead where i am, and a few other places i game on a semi regular are dying off.
Its just not worth the time and effort to play a game when there are such good alternatives out now.
Even a old world age of sigmar campaign is drawing more interest.

Steady or growing in my area. Everyone is waiting on pins and needles, holding their breath, wanting to see what 8th will bring.

It's doing well in my area. We just had 12 people in a local ITC tourney last weekend, which is a very good turnout for us. And we didn't even have all of the regulars; there were a few new faces. We usually see a decent variety of armies in our tournaments. This last one, we had 2 Eldar, 1 Tau, 1 Orks, 1 Ad Mech, 1 CSM/Daemons, 1 Genestealer Cult, 3 Codex Space Marines of various flavors, 1 Blood Angels, and my own Khorne Daemonkin. And many of us have different armies than these (I myself also run Dark Angels and Tau). In addition, there are a few players that don't participate in our ITC tournaments, but sometimes play in the less competitive tournaments that are occasionally run. And on our local wargaming group facebook page, there are often newbies looking to get games in with us and learn the ropes.

TL;DR: 40k is not only surviving in my area, it is thriving!

Apple fox wrote:
It is basically dead where i am, and a few other places i game on a semi regular are dying off.
Its just not worth the time and effort to play a game when there are such good alternatives out now.
Even a old world age of sigmar campaign is drawing more interest.

Where abouts are you Apple Fox?

Thank you to everyone that's posted so far. I think I might look into some issues and talk to a few peeps and get the general feel of it. I do know that some of our regulars can't game anymore since they now have families.

Seems to be some growth over the last year around me. New players and older players returning.

40k is swelling in my area.

My local GW owner is actually in a hard spot, because a lot of people don't show up as getting a game in is so difficult, but if the owner gets another table then more people will come, increasing the issue even more.

I'm not complaining however!

I can't say as I've just returned to the hobby after a 2 year hiatus. Although that may help answer your question anyway.

 captain bloody fists wrote:

Apple fox wrote:
It is basically dead where i am, and a few other places i game on a semi regular are dying off.
Its just not worth the time and effort to play a game when there are such good alternatives out now.
Even a old world age of sigmar campaign is drawing more interest.

Where abouts are you Apple Fox?

Thank you to everyone that's posted so far. I think I might look into some issues and talk to a few peeps and get the general feel of it. I do know that some of our regulars can't game anymore since they now have families.

I go around mostly central and south aus

I think the best thing that could happen is for 40k to see a drop off, maybe that is the only way GW will take a look at the game.

If it's not growing, it's at least static in my area, afaik.

Over the past few years it has been dying out in my area but I think recently it has leveled out and maybe started growing again.

It's dying out here. Too many started having kids and now have less resources for games. They then found cheaper games to get into (not many sold their armies... they still have their 3rd-6th armies).

Formations caused necessary increased spending and imbalance. This drove out old players and is a large barrier to entry for new players.

40k still gets bought by players for painting and modelling... but not for playing in the local scene. It seems the scene is all card fames, x wing, imperial assault, mantic games, blood bowl, or aos.

It seems to be on the up and up here in Melbourne, if our facebook page is anything to go by.
Constantly new people joining it, constantly being posted in etc.

It's growing quite well here! Our pool of players grew from 6 to 12 in one year!

In fact, there are rumours of GW finally acknowledging Brazil as a viable market

Well, its not the case here. It seemed to be the case two years ago. Players have switched to WMH, bolt action, X-wing and whatnot. But now 40k (and 30k to some extent) regained its strength. This is partly due to the new supplement books, say for Chaos, and that games like WMH are not easily accessible.

Static rather than dying, but it's not as big as it used to be.

Healthy here.

Seems fine. There's always a small churn of people leaving, starting of restarting, but that's typical of any game that's been around for 30 years. I see the same sort of thing with lapsed D&D players.

It was ok in 5-th. Than almost died out in 6-th. Started growing in 7-th and is bigger than in 5-th now. So, growing and better than ever.

with Traitor's Hate, skip Angels, then TL it's roared back into life where it wasn't doing bad already. AoS is just doing way better than an already good baseline.

Growing.

stroller wrote:
Healthy here.

I think in the UK it is healthier than everywhere else.
40k is still alive and kicking here. But the tournament scene is not as strong as it has been about 6 years ago.

Sort of steadyish in my area, but definitely not growing.

 wuestenfux wrote:

stroller wrote:
Healthy here.

I think in the UK it is healthier than everywhere else.
40k is still alive and kicking here. But the tournament scene is not as strong as it has been about 6 years ago.

Same here.

Tons of casual, and tons of competitive games, but the only tournament I've ever heard about here in Colorado is a kill team league that everyone is doing for fun.