Warhammer 40K: New Win-Rates Showcase The Balance Dataslate Impact
New Meta, Who Dis? Games Workshop has released the new win-rate data 40k since the Balance Dataslate came out.
Warhammer 40,000 is a game that GW has attempted to balance out with the latest edition. It wasn’t perfect at launch and since then we’ve gotten a new Tyranid Codex and some new updates rolled out, too. Did those changes help curb the dominance of the Aeldari and Genestealer Cults? We don’t have to guess anymore — we can see the new data provided by GW:
“With 60,000 games recorded since the Balance Dataslate came out, current faction win-rates are looking very even, with just a few factions outside the 45-55% window:”
The Mighty Have Fallen
After 60,000 games reported that’s a pretty good chunk of data to work with! As you can see the outliers have been brought in and the top and bottom are only a point or two away from that “Goldilocks” spot of 45-55% now. That said, look how the mighty have fallen.
Aeldari are at a much more reasonable 57% win rate. Compared to last time, that’s quite the drop! So yes, it’s probably fair to say the Balance Dataslate helped to curb their win potential. That said, I don’t know if GW pulled the data out for the mirror matches or not as that makes the overall win-rate lower. Anyhow, the Aeldari nerfs did help corse correct to a degree. How about the other boogie man?
The Genestealer Cults got an arguably bigger nerf with this change. In fact, I don’t know if you can even argue that point now: it IS a bigger nerf based on the new data. How bad is it for GSC now? They’re now sub 50% win rate:
Just to compare back in August (before the Balance Dataslate) they used to be at a whopping 63% win rate! So yeah, I’d say that this change was pretty effective in dropping them down a peg — or three.
Also, since we’re talking about the top, the Imperial Knights and Adeptus Custodes are also doing undeniably worse since the Balance Dataslate changes with both of those armies now sub- 50% as well:
Back From The Brink
What about the other end of the spectrum? There were quite a few armies that were hurting in the new edition. So how did those end up? Well things have turned around for a couple. Let’s hit the highlights.
The Leagues of Votann are LEAGUES ahead of where they were previously. They went from the bottom of the bottom at 35% all the way up to an impressive 54% win rate! I’d say their update was a pretty big success for them.
The T’au have also bounced back from the bottom and are up on top with a 53% win rate now. This one might have less to do with an specific buff to them and more to do with the curbing of other armies. That’s one of the interesting things about win rates as a measuring tool. When the top comes down that means someone else is going up — I think that might be the case for the T’au. That and I’m betting T’au players were also getting a handle on their own new rules, too.
There’s quite a few other success stories here too. We won’t go through them all but I do think that some of the core rules changes really helped a lot of the lower win rate armies claw their way back up to a “normal” zone. When the top isn’t as oppressive the lower and middle class can move up and be better off.
And now for a not-so successful story: The Drukhari. Before the big update they were at 43% which wasn’t that far out of the zone but still…not great. And now they are the only army still at the bottom and out of the Goldilocks zone at 44%. SO CLOSE. Oh well.
If you want to learn more about the Meta and the impact of the Balance Dataslate GW has a video that’s a good discussion of what’s happening.
What do you think? Was the Balance Dataslate a success or did it over or under step in your mind?
