I can't think of the last time an RTS released. It seems like it's a legit dead genre, haven't seen anything and it's a shame since it's a great genere.

I don't think any genre really dies. Some have phases where they rest for some time before they come back in some shape or form. I mean 10-20y ago pretty much everyone would had agreed that pixelated 8bit/16bit style sidescrollers would be dead.

The problem is that the best RTS games have already been made. RTS went through a true golden age in which games like Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Rise of Nations, Total Annihilation, Age of Empires 2, Age of Mythology, Red Alert 2 etc, pretty much reached the peak of what the genre was capable of acheiving. I'm not sure if it's even possible of getting better, so devs just don't try. This is different to other genres which haven't really reached their peak yet.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong, maybe the best RTS game ever will come out next year, who knows.

Ain't that one new: https://www.gog.com/game/iron_harvest ?

edit:
And that one kind of new: https://www.gog.com/game/steel_division_2 ?

Oh, ok. No really my genre so I was more guessing ;)

Although Iron Harvest interest me somewhat because of its weirdly charming WW1 steampunk mech theme.

I guess console sales play a role as well, RTS games just aren't very playable with controllers (if at all), so its pretty much a niche genre nowadays.

Just recently from the bloated corpse of Blizzard two new studios sprung out, made up from mostly old Blizzard developers, announcing that they are working on new RTS games(Frost Giant Studios and Uncapped Games). The end isn't near, most genres wane and wax. RTS will see a resurgence just as soon as there are enough fans buying them.

This is it. RTS has been dead for a while because it's a lot mechanically easier to focus on controlling one person and because it's harder to monetize compared to other esports (e.g., MOBA, battle royales, FPS).

In the meanwhile, SC2, Northgard*, Iron Harvest*, Total War: TK, Ancestors Legacy*, Supreme Commander* series, Stronghold* series, Crusader Kings 3, and Homeworld Remastered* are good substitutes until those new studios pump out new RTSes. i'm also tracking RTS games on GOG and I pull my games from Wiki.

Or you can resort to spin-off real-time tactics (RTT) genre for now like Shadow Tactics*, Desperados series*, Company of Heroes series, Commandos series*, Robin Hood*, or Bad North* will also do.

* = GOG

The genre is great but it essentially reached the dead end. It's the same formula for almost every game - build the base, gather resources (or take control of the points that provide resources), build units, fight... Even controls haven't really improved since WarCarft III.

Yes, there are some games like Iron Harvest but unless someone introduces a new breakthrough idea, the genre will remain dead for major audience.

Classic RTS? Well, Age of Empires 4 is still to come out, so hopefully if that is a big success we'll see a bit of a resurgence. Unfortunately I can't say I'm a huge fan of the general look of the thing so far. The scaling of the units vs buildings really bugs me, especially compared to AoE2.

To me it's always seemed as if a portion of the RTS interest bled off into the moba genre.

lolwut

Heck no. Creative Assembly, who I think are the current kings of RTS games, are still making some awesome games. Warhammer 3 is coming out later this year.

It's dead to the mainstream.

The latest Spellforce games tried to do something different by adding rpg elements. Ancestors Legacy was quite popular, it even got ported to the Switch, but is still very much niche because I don't think it emphasises multiplayer.

And that's the thing really, for rts to get big again it has focus on multiplayer. Mainstream gamers also expect triple-a quality.

Again, it's a matter of debate whether Total War games are RTS games. The tactical battles are indeed real-time, but they have no strategic element, the strategy is the turn-based world map.

Many will say that to be RTS, you need to be collecting resources, building structures and training armies on the same real-time map that you fight in.