Since its release in 2014, Hearthstone has experienced a steady influx of players, reaching 70 million within three years. This number has surged exponentially in the past 18 months, with Blizzard now celebrating the notable 100 million players milestone.

A large part of its growth is thanks to a growing mobile player base, after the game launched for smartphones in 2015. Director Ben Brode is also partially credited with establishing the upturn in recent players, helping to craft a steady string of downloadable content (DLC) across the years before leaving to form another studio called Second Dinner. This will cap the year off with Rastakhan’s Rumble, the troll-heavy expansion pack, this December.

To celebrate hitting the 100-million-player milestone, Hearthstone’s current creative director Ben Thompson and his team released a video thanking players for their participation. “We’re humbled and grateful that so many players have chosen to join us in the Hearthstone Tavern! As our way of saying thank you, we’re throwing a party!” reads the description.

Players can join in on the party by logging in anywhere between 10:00 PST / 13:00 EST / 18:00 GMT on November 7^th until November 11^th. During this time players will be gifted six free card packs from the most recent expansion, The Boomsday Project, as well as gain access to a range of Celebrate the Players quests. This rewards players with 100 gold and can repeated up to five times.

“Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to sharing many more years of Hearthstone fun with you. See you in the Tavern!”

KitGuru Says: This could spell good news for Artifact in the run-up to release, providing that Valve is able to capitalise on the gaining interest in card games. In the meantime, this is wonderful news for continuing Hearthstone players, and it’s great to see Blizzard giving back to the community at large. Will you be grabbing the free packs while they’re available?

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