It’s time for the yearly MTG Arena ‘State of the Formats’ article! This consistently reveals unexpected information about the popularity of MTG Arena’s constructed formats. While Standard being the star of the show should surprise no one, the statistics always contain some unexpected details.
This year is no different. Standard stands over every other MTG Arena format like a titan, but the often-hated digital-only formats have more going for them than you may think.
Standard Reigns
Considered among the MTG Arena formats are Standard, Historic, Brawl, Alchemy, Explorer, and Timeless. Standard stands far ahead of the rest, with two times more population than the following format. The Standard graph demonstrates the pattern commonly seen between new releases on the platform. Standard gets less popular as a format ages but is reinvigorated when a new set comes out.
This is not at all surprising for a few reasons. It’s no secret that Magic, as a whole, is heavily pushing Standard right now. Between a new five-year Foundations set, constant Store Championships, and a massive legality change making future Universes Beyond sets Standard legal, this format is getting the most resources from Wizards of the Coast throughout 2025. Add on that three of the upcoming competitive seasons are Standard, and it is absurdly clear what Wizards wants people to play.
Standard is also the only paper equivalent format on MTG Arena. Any hybrid players who play on both MTG Arena and in paper are going to get the most value out of playing Standard. You can explore strategies and improve your play in both contexts, allowing you to spend your time more productively – should your goal be improving at a format.
Notably, best-of-one Standard is the most played format on MTG Arena by a wide margin. Many players simply don’t have enough time to sit down for a full best-of-three game.
The Digital Formats
Historic, a curated format utilizing all of the cards on MTG Arena, comes second, having more than twice the population of Alchemy, Explorer, and Timeless. Many players expected the introduction of Timeless to create identity issues between itself and Historic. Timeless is now considered the Vintage of MTG Arena, so what the heck is Historic?
That’s why some players may find it so surprising to see that Historic is the clear second-place finisher. Despite the format not being particularly close to any paper formats, or allowing MTG Arena players to engage in absolutely ridiculous shenanigans, Historic is still incredibly popular.
This suggests that enfranchised Historic players simply weren’t willing to make the switch to Timeless. They already have decks that they enjoy playing, so there’s little point in switching to Timeless. This is especially true when you consider how expensive the upfront cost of Timeless can be.
Next comes Brawl, Magic Arena’s version of Commander. Considering that Brawl is already this popular, I would be incredibly curious to see what happens if a ranked queue for the format was created. While this is currently the ultimate casual format for the client, it would be really cool to have some competitive Commander vibes available on MTG Arena. It’s tough to know how that would impact the popularity of the format, but we think it would be worth exploring.
While Alchemy is the poster child for the most hated MTG format, it’s surprisingly popular. New players do commonly get introduced warmly to this format, which may put it ahead of the two least popular formats on MTG Arena.
Alchemy, shockingly, is twice as popular as both Explorer and Timeless. These particular formats have their peculiarities, which may merit a longer conversation. Notably, the up-front cost for Alchemy isn’t too severe, and MTG Arena commonly hosts drafts to support Alchemy, making it easier to access. In the long run, Alchemy is a rotating MTG format, so it will be costly as time goes by, but between the free packs offered and elevated ease of access, putting together a competitive Alchemy deck probably isn’t very difficult, especially for Standard and Draft players.
The Odd Ones Out
The least popular formats on MTG Arena are Explorer and Timeless. In terms of number of players, the two formats are rather comparable. Explorer is likely to see a surge in play soon thanks to the addition of Pioneer Masters coming in December. Wizards of the Coast is finally landing on their promise to bring Pioneer to MTG Arena, or at least 99.95 percent of it, and Pioneer Masters will be the final move to fulfill that. With another paper format basically available in MTG Arena, we expect Explorer’s support to skyrocket. The only other paper equivalent format on MTG Arena is Standard, and that format is leagues ahead of the others in terms of popularity.
Timeless is a difficult nut to crack. As the Vintage of MTG Arena, there is certainly some fun, explosive gameplay to be had. Sadly, that gameplay comes at a very high price. Because there are no banned cards in Vintage, any cards that you may want to use, you will have to craft. It certainly doesn’t help that multiple powerful cards also have high rarities. Basically, playing Timeless is a massive demand on your Wildcard supply, which may price many MTG Arena players out from even participating.
A Push Towards Paper?
Depending on how Explorer fares after becoming as close to paper Pioneer as humanely possible, it could give the MTG Arena strong incentives to push towards other paper formats. Standard is already the most popular format by quite some margin, and our bet is that Draft is also obscenely popular compared to digital-only MTG formats.
This data suggests that the extra effort to line up MTG Arena with paper formats could be worth the investment, but even getting Pioneer Masters online has taken a ton of time. Should it succeed, however, perhaps Modern Masters will be next.
