While MOBA games such asLeague of Legendsaren’t nearly as ubiquitous as they once were, when new ones were released at a remarkably rapid pace, some of them have stuck around for way longer than most players may have expected. Specifically,LOL’s old rival,Heroes of Newerth, stayed on the market for just over a decade.
Now, however,Heroes of Newerthhas officially closed down, withLeague of LegendsandDOTA 2being some of the few remaining original MOBAs that are still available today. Though the developers ofHONannounced late last year that the game would shut down on July 13, 2025, there was no official reasoning provided as to why that would be the case.
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WhileHeroes of Newerthmay have been somewhat competitive with the likes ofDOTA 2andLeague of Legendsin 2015, that seems to have changed quite a while ago. Even the game’s official shutdown announcement on its subreddit received just over a few dozen upvotes and comments, suggesting that the present playerbase simply wasn’t enough to support such a massive project. At this time, the servers seem to be fully inaccessible, and there’s no offline functionality of any kind present in the game, effectively killing it in its tracks.
It’s curious to note thatHeroes of Newerthwas originally a paid game. At $30 per copy, the developer quickly realized that it needed to pivot towards a F2P model with microtransactions instead. This allowed the studio to secure a more substantial community that could rally around an underdog MOBA which otherwise wouldn’t be able to keep up with the genre’s biggest, most comprehensive offerings.
Of course,Heroes of Newerthdid stick around for way longer than many other MOBAs.Epic Games’Paragonwas scuttled rather early on, for example, though the main issue there was the nascent success of none other thanFortnite, which took up resources from just about every other Epic Games production. Whatever the case may be,HONmanaged to stay relatively relevant for an impressively long stretch of time, especially for a F2P title.
In the meantime, one ofHON’s old rivals seems to be doing better than ever before.League of Legends' Xbox Game Pass releasehas not only bolstered its already substantial momentum but also marked a sort of resurgence for the IP’s main offering.LOLgrew into a massive franchise over the years, and some of its most prominent media offerings, such asArcane, outshone the base game for a little while. Now, however, withLOLavailable via Game Pass, more players can jump into the fray than ever before.
Heroes of Newerthwas available exclusively on PC, with the servers shutting down on Jul 16, 2025.
