LoL’s oldest competitor is now officially dead – that’s what made Heroes of Newerth so special

In 2010, the MOBA Heroes of Newerth (HoN) was released as a competitor to League of Legends. However, it was more closely aligned with the original version of DotA and offered a few differences. In recent years, however, it has not played a major role. In June 2022 it was discontinued.

When did HoN die? Heroes of Newerth was discontinued on June 20, 2022. However, this attitude did not come as a surprise:

The MOBA accompanied the players for almost 12 years and was even able to achieve great success in the beginning. However, it could not hold its own against LoL and later DOTA 2. We reveal why the game failed and what made it so special.

By the way: The new AD Carry will appear in LoL soon and you can watch it in this video:

Heroes of Newerth relied on Deny and Buy2Play – and was initially successful

What made Heroes of Newerth so special? The basic principle of the game with its champions, lanes and towers is almost identical to LoL. But it was precisely in the subtleties that Heroes of Newerth offered some differences:

• You could deny opponents gold and experience points by killing your own minions and towers. The English term “deny” is used for this.
• The MOBA appeared as a full-price title. In return, however, all champions were unlocked directly. Later they also switched to Free2Play.
• The game was much darker than the colorful LoL.

Overall, Heroes of Newerth was considered to be significantly more complex and demanding than LoL.

How successful was HoN? Around the same time as LoL, Heroes of Newerth also launched its beta. From 2009 to around mid-2012, it was LoL’s biggest competitor – also because DotA itself could only be used as a mod for Warcraft 3.

Although HoN’s player numbers were significantly lower, it was the strongest alternative on the market.

Then, in 2012, came Smite and DOTA 2, and in 2015, Blizzard’s MOBA, Heroes of Storm, was added. However, Heroes of Newerth was able to keep up well with these three competitors for a long time. Only DOTA 2 then pulled away over time, but never matched the success of LoL.

Heroes of Newerth fails due to balance issues and too much competition

Why did HoN fail? At release, Heroes of Newerth was described as the “best DOTA clone out there”. It had fewer players due to the price hurdle, but players who would have liked more depth in LoL were very interested.

In 2011 the game switched to a Free2Play model and experienced a “small boom”, as can also be seen in the graphic above. However, this boom was not enough, also because many players appreciated the beginner-friendliness of LoL.

But for the fans of HoN there were even negative consequences with the change to Free2Play. New champions were released that were way too strong. These champions also had to be purchased separately, even by players who had previously paid full price for Heroes of Newerth. That didn’t go over well.

Interest in the MOBA decreased noticeably from around 2014. There were two reasons for this:

• For one thing, Valve’s DOTA 2 has been growing in popularity. Especially the DOTA fans who had previously played Heroes of Newerth switched from the “clone” to the “original”.
• In 2015 there was a change at the developer studio and a new publisher took over. After that, the regular updates should clearly not have failed.

Now Heroes of Newerth is finally over. In the last few days, some players who will miss HoN have spoken up in the official forum.

What do you think of the old MOBA? Did you enjoy playing it before or did it completely pass you by? will you miss it Feel free to write it in the comments.

Anyone looking for a new MOBA should keep an eye on this project by former LoL developers:

New co-op game from former LoL developers wants to cross MOBAs with MMORPGs – Starts tests in March