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This will be a thread for talking about a perceived uptake in popularization of Primaris marines.

I believe that there a few reasons for this. The Primaris range has expanded rather well, so many people have more units to work with. We now have more Rubicon characters as well. More upgrades for first founding chapters are out, too.

There is also the matter of new lore for Primaris and how they have integrated with their chapters. I’m not exhaustive in knowledge here, but I’ll expound on some notable points:
-Only the very first Primaris generation was raised on Mars. All new marines are recruited from chapter worlds and are indoctrinated in chapter culture.
-Not expanded upon, yet, but Primaris are effected by geneseed mutations.
-Primaris are beginning to be integrated into the inner workings of special chapters (cough DA)

Simple....marines got better

I personally believe that once all the teased units are released a Primaris only army will be really viable. I think a Primaris only army has been decent sine the release of Shadowspear, but this newer stuff fills in most of the bigger gaps in making an army that does okay to pretty well.

Still salty, still prefer classic marines, but it's reached the point where there's no reason to shut myself out of half the codex, just picked up rubicon shrike today, for VVs, not phobos, but still. I do resent how strong primaris have become, and all primaris army is definitely mroe than viable now. Which is why they've had an uptake.

Probably most important though for the uptake in primaris is the purposeful hard push by GW for players to use them instead of classic marines:
1) The whole playerbase is on the up, there's a huge amount of new players
2) If you're a new player or a player who never played marines before, you're unlikely to have a lot of attachment to classic marines
3) In almost all the new art, in almost all the new photos in books, in all the WH Community article photos, all you see is primaris. Very rarely will they show classic marines. (not counting scouts and vehicles, but non-primaris dudes in power armour are basically just gone)
4) The primaris roster has been very steadily getting better rules wise
5) So if you're a new player, and all you see is primaris, all you hear about is primaris, you have no attachment to classic marines, and primaris work on the tabletop, why wouldn't you go primaris?

Still prefer the T-Rex to Indominus rex.

 bullyboy wrote:
Simple....marines got better

Basically this. As much as people would love to believe otherwise, people are less likely to want to play a faction that's subpar, even if it's their favourite.

Doesn’t hurt they’re starting to convert the Start Collecting boxes to Primaris models, ala the Space Wolves reboxing. I expect the Blood Angel will be redone soon (perhaps with the Impulsor?) or simply discontinued.

 Stormonu wrote:
Doesn’t hurt they’re starting to convert the Start Collecting boxes to Primaris models, ala the Space Wolves reboxing. I expect the Blood Angel will be redone soon (perhaps with the Impulsor?) or simply discontinued.

Every new player I have met hasn't had any issues with Primaris marines. Now that Start Collecting boxes aren't a particularly good army supplement (unless you can use the HQ), it makes sense to convert them to Primaris.

I don't know if GW will include a Start Collecting box with an Impulsor. Even at the Start Collecting price, that isn't a bad deal unless they only put 5 Intercessors in with it. Which I wouldn't put it pass GW to do since they did it with the Kill Team Reivers.

People buy models with good rules, period. And primaris have really, really good rules right now.

 greyknight12 wrote:
People buy models with good rules, period. And primaris have really, really good rules right now.

I would say some Primaris units have good rules, but pretty much all factions have that. I think this really, really good rules idea is mostly coming from Space Marines have really, really new rules most of which buffed them over what they were. I suspect that marines will do better, but as their tricks become known they aren't going to be the powerhouses they are perceived to be at this moment. And any hiccups will the smoothed out in FAQ or CA.

I also believe people buy models they like more than if the rules are good. They might pass on something if it is bad, but I don't think it has to be good. I think that here on Dakka as this site has a more competitively minded community this is probably less the case and most only buy the good stuff. Even if people do buy models with good rules, why did people buy Primaris before the new codex and why aren't Eldar more popular? Primaris has been not all that great most of their existence and some units, such as Reivers, still aren't after the codex. Where as Eldar have always done pretty good even if the good units within their faction have moved around over time.

 Saturmorn Carvilli wrote:

 greyknight12 wrote:
People buy models with good rules, period. And primaris have really, really good rules right now.

I would say some Primaris units have good rules, but pretty much all factions have that. I think this really, really good rules idea is mostly coming from Space Marines have really, really new rules most of which buffed them over what they were. I suspect that marines will do better, but as their tricks become known they aren't going to be the powerhouses they are perceived to be at this moment. And any hiccups will the smoothed out in FAQ or CA.

I also believe people buy models they like more than if the rules are good. They might pass on something if it is bad, but I don't think it has to be good. I think that here on Dakka as this site has a more competitively minded community this is probably less the case and most only buy the good stuff. Even if people do buy models with good rules, why did people buy Primaris before the new codex and why aren't Eldar more popular? Primaris has been not all that great most of their existence and some units, such as Reivers, still aren't after the codex. Where as Eldar have always done pretty good even if the good units within their faction have moved around over time.

Adding a small observation but I remember back in 7th when the Necron codex came out with the infamous "Decurion". Necrons became a lot more common place after that dex landed (prehaps people dusting their old crons off or whatever) but more interesting was seeing how units like Tomb Blades where sold out for weeks if not months on the GW website because they where a needed part of a Decurion formation. I don't think many people bought them before because they liked the way they looked but they sure as heck bought them because they became really powerful (or a gateway to power).

Still while power gaming and pretty models might get people on board with starting an army (and actually putting the money out to do so), I strongly believe that other content and who is the focus of that content plays a much bigger factor in how popular they are in 40k. Marines are the most popular faction due in part because when you see anything 40k related, it probably has a space marine front and center. Books, video games, artwork, table top game releases, starter boxes, campaign supplements, etc all heavy focus on space marines where as the other factions get sprinkled in for variety but generally are there to support or be the opposition to the space marines. The amount of lore out there for a first founding chapter probably exceeds whats out there for entire xenos races. Ultramarines are probably the most popular chapter out there but I doubt its because they have some secret sauce concept that makes them super appealing (they are the by the book army in a nutshell, the most vanilla of vanilla marines). Its probably because they have the most books written about them, featured the most in the narratives, and are the poster child of the entire product line (that or there are a ton of Indianapolis Colts fans out there). In short marketing plays a huge factor and GW focuses on marketing space marines over all other factions.

 Saturmorn Carvilli wrote:
I suspect that marines will do better, but as their tricks become known they aren't going to be the powerhouses they are perceived to be at this moment. And any hiccups will the smoothed out in FAQ or CA.

I also believe people buy models they like more than if the rules are good.

Clearly you haven't yet faced a WAAC IH army yet. Thst is not going to be an easy game for a very long time, even for other tournament lists.
And god help you if you're less than tournament ready, IH will wipe the floor with you. There is no gimmick to the IH list, and no trick to counter or gimmick of your own to use. The vehicles/dreads are just flat out broken stats wise with the strats, the doctrine and the special character.

Don't discount the look of the miniatures themselves. Primaris just look really nice, especially next to classic marines.

Well, as Dark Angel, Imperial Knight and Alpha Legion players that already has a few project hanging out waiting to be completed...

I'm not interested or warmer when compare to their launch.
I'm pretty happy they're here, to be honest, but only because classic marine are becoming cheaper and cheaper and I can finally go crazy and buy from reseller a lot of stuff I never purchased before.

I am more interested in conversion and modelling than game (even if I play regularly in our club and occasionally in local tournament), so in theory I may be one of the target for Primaris release (aside from newbie and meta-chaser).
Instead, it's the opposite.

I even inadvertedly purchased a "psuedo-primaris" model from Scibor (it was a truescale terminator of the Sons of Lion that is almost perfectly primaris-scale).
I was SO annoyed by the scale difference that I painted it as a Lion'El Johnson miniature (this was before Guilliman release and the idiocy about giant primarchs became fully canon).

You can call them Space Marine and put int the same book, but still is quite evident that they aren't an "expansion" of the line.
They are simply a new army (model-wise) that doesn't make with the existing one.
I won't deny they have their attractiveness (even if I don't like the general design and really dislike a few of them)... but the point is: when I will start collecting a new army.... I'm pretty sure it won't be power armor army.

As long as I can buy some models here and there from the old line that are coherent with my own (Bikes and some vehicles specifically) I'm still onboard with the occasional purchase.

When the Marine roster will instead become primaris-only, I will simply stop purchasing anything marine related and relies on other miniature manufacturer (unless, in the future, they will make something that I really need to buy... like a fething Lion'El Johnson model... or a good-looking non-grav vehicle).

Unfortunately for GW, there is nothing they can make to made them attractive to someone like me: infantry is off-limits because don't match with my existing model; vehicles are by-design quite different from regular Marine one and even Dreadnought that somehow can fit (I already accepted Contemptor anyway) are the few miniatures I really don't like.

Let's be clear, I'm ok with that. I think those were very precise business decisions... so, there's little to do about them.