Magic creator’s ‘unique’ card game KeyForge has sold well over one million decks, Fantasy Flight says

KeyForge, the latest card game from Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield, has sold well over one million decks since its release late last year, the game’s publisher Fantasy Flight has announced.

KeyForge’s first set, Call of the Archons, was officially launched in November 2018, with both a two-player starter set and standalone decks – each of which has a completely unique name, card back illustration and card list, thanks to the game’s impressively ambitious use of algorithms to generate billions of different decks.

A second set, Age of Ascension, followed this year, introducing new keywords, gameplay effects and hundreds of extra cards to the mix. (You can find our full thoughts in a review in the next issue of Tabletop Gaming magazine, out this Friday.)

Players can register their unique decks on the free companion app for KeyForge, Master Vault, which keeps track of the decks they own, their performance in matches and the game’s current meta.

Fantasy Flight said that following the release of Age of Ascension the number of KeyForge decks registered on Master Vault increased by over 250,000, taking the total number of decks registered to over one million.

The publisher added that the million decks registered on Master Vault “represents only a fraction of the total decks sold across the world” – but exactly how many decks have been sold altogether remains unclear.

“KeyForge instantly became one of our biggest-selling lines upon its release in November 2018 and the Age of Ascension set has started strongly in the same vein,” Fantasy Flight parent company Asmodee added in its announcement.

To mark the milestone, KeyForge players have been given ten bonus Æmbershards in Master Vault – the in-app currency normally obtained by registering decks and taking part in official tournaments, which can be swapped for prizes at organised play events.

KeyForge was recently named Best Collectible Game at this year’s Origins Awards in both the jury-voted and ‘fan-favourite’ categories, beating the latest expansions for long-running card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Pokémon TCG, Dragon Ball Super and Garfield’s own Magic: The Gathering.

As we noted in our Call of the Archons review last year, KeyForge’s lack of customisability in its pre-constructed decks won’t be for everyone, but it’s still a hell of a game.