For a game mode that regularly inspires forum posts suggesting everyone hates it, Mythic+ appears to be doing rather well.
Midnight Season 1 has seen some of the highest Mythic+ participation numbers in World of Warcraft history, according to Raider.IO — and Blizzard believes it knows why.
The answer isn't a revolutionary new reward system or some secret psychological trick.
Apparently, people played Mythic+ because it was accessible, the dungeon pool was good and pressing their class buttons was fun.
Sometimes game design can be terribly complicated.
Sometimes people simply enjoy the game.
Blizzard Says Accessibility Was the Biggest Factor
During a new developer interview, Raider.IO asked Lead Encounter Designer Andrew De Sousa what Blizzard internally attributes Season 1's unusually strong Mythic+ participation to.
His first answer was accessibility.
Season 1 gave players a progression path where achievable goals kept appearing just beyond the previous one.
A player might begin by farming Hero-track gear from +10 keys.
Then +12 suddenly seemed possible.
Then +14.
Rather than immediately reaching a wall where Mythic+ became the private territory of extremely dedicated groups, players had reasons to keep climbing.
That matters more than it sounds.
Mythic+ works best when the next difficulty level looks dangerous but achievable.
If the ladder suddenly turns into a cliff, most people simply stop climbing.
Keystone Myth Gave Better Players Another Target
Blizzard also introduced Keystone Myth and the top-one-percent seasonal mount during Midnight.
De Sousa says the team had wanted to add that kind of reward for some time and knew there was strong player appetite for another objective above the traditional Mythic+ reward structure.
That helped solve a different problem.
Accessibility keeps ordinary players entering the system.
Prestige rewards give the strongest players a reason to remain there.
We've already seen the consequences late in Season 1, with title cutoffs continuing to climb as players push increasingly high keys right up to the final reset.
The ladder stayed busy because both ends had something worth chasing.
The Dungeon Pool Apparently Worked
De Sousa also pointed toward something refreshingly straightforward:
Season 1 had a strong dungeon pool.
That doesn't mean every dungeon was universally loved.
We have spent the season watching Algeth'ar Academy, Nexus-Point Xenas and various individual bosses periodically become Azeroth's designated complaint departments.
But the overall mix apparently kept enough players interested to support unusually high participation.
Blizzard also believes class design deserves some credit.
De Sousa said many classes simply turned out to be fun in Midnight.
That sounds almost embarrassingly obvious, but it is fundamental.
A progression system can have excellent rewards and beautifully calibrated difficulty.
If playing your character feels miserable, none of it matters.
Season 1’s Numbers Make Season 2 More Interesting
The real question is whether Blizzard can repeat this in Season 2.
Patch 12.1 changes the dungeon pool, class balance and several elements of the Mythic+ environment.
That means Blizzard isn't merely maintaining a successful system.
It is changing one.
The encouraging part is that the developers appear to understand what worked.
Keep the early ladder accessible.
Give ordinary players visible progression.
Give high-end players meaningful prestige targets.
Build a dungeon pool people actually want to enter.
And make the classes fun enough that pressing buttons remains enjoyable after the fiftieth key.
World of Warcraft has spent years trying increasingly complicated ways to keep players engaged.
Midnight Season 1 may have rediscovered one of the simpler ones.
Give people something fun to play, then give them another mountain just slightly higher than the one they climbed yesterday.
Apparently, they'll keep going.
Especially if there's a mount at the top.
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