Is it now the time for King HB to leave his throne?

Reserved

to be honest, it's a long time since I bought a good bundle anywhere.

Nope, HB is still king. It got worse, but all bundlesites got worse along with it (or died, bye otaku)

As an actual expert and bundle connaisseur I can definitely say, that it's hard to predict the future.

Unless Fanatical releases a good monthly like Humble does then Humble will never lose that battle.

In terms of bundles, Fanatical have a decent variety of good ones (despise the mystery madness). As for individual purchased GMG is WAY batter than HB IMHO.

Fewer developers and publishers willing to devalue their games by bundling them has led to an overall decline in bundle quality everywhere, not just at Humble.

Personally speaking, I'd like to see bundles go away entirely. Perhaps then people would appreciate more the games they purchase, myself included.

For now because of the monthly bundle, its still reigns but the gap was narrowing. However, with so many mystery bundles from fanatical, for me its widening again.

I think bundles will still be around. I've been buying them since the C64/amiga days and was always excited by bundles when they were available from Ocean and suchlike. https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/File:Arcadia_Standard_Front.jpg

They're so common now that bundles are no longer exciting any more and just feels like any other day. Maybe if they fell out of fashion they could make a come back like vinyl :)

I'd like a proof that HB declining has anything to do with IGN. I haven't seen any change of quality when IGN bought them, and I'm pretty sure its decline woud have come sooner or later anyhow. It's just easy to accuse IGN, but I'm not sure IGN is directly involved in the day to day of HB.

I think the fact there are not good bundles anymore in many people's opinion is just that (not all, but) many of the good indie games have been bundle previously, so people just see rebundles or bundles with games they don't want. But I'm pretty sure a newcomer to bundles would find many things to buy.
(Tzaar's explanation is also plausible, but I don't think it's just that)

HB is still the leader, the number of bundles sold and quality of games (even if us hoarders and bundle addicts have most of them already) is well above anybody else.

YOU ANGERED THE GODS

who's gonna dethrone it, kinguin? g2a?
fanatical is also pure trash with those mystery bundles.

better to get rid of bundles, especially when they are mostly feeding useless developers. the market is saturated.

Other then the Humble Monthly, good bundles on any store are mostly a thing of the past atp.

Bundles had their day, they got attention to indie devs, and helped support charities. But that is mostly in the past, many of the former indie devs have been bought up by large corporations, the market place is much different then in was back in 2010 when humble was founded. Heck humble itself has been bought up.

The next innovation is coming to video games. Video games as a service. As companies are phasing out single game sales in favor of a subscription model (IE: EA Access or Xbox Game Pass) you'll find less and less titles available/ New games will be exclusive to whatever gaming provider you subscribe to.

Smaller companies will be forced to join larger video game streaming services as they take up more and more of the market. these companies will pressure for exclusive rites as well further limiting sale, and potential games that can be put into bundles in the first place.

with the changing market places bundle sites will be fhased out. but who knows, perhaps in another 10 years the market will shift again and they'll make a comeback.

there are still good bundles to be had - like today's horror bundle

Well, if the latest two bundles are the new baseline, then Fanatical already dethroned Humble when it comes to bundles.

The latest bundle is pretty good - at least the first 2 tiers, which is surprising, because they've been complete garbage for a long time.
My guess is IGN saw a lot more revenue potential in Monthly than in regular bundles, and the value you're getting there is outstanding really, can't imagine anyone saying they're bad.

That being said, a lot of people seem to forget even before getting acquired by IGN, the bundles were going downhill pretty fast.

On a side note - the book bundles (especially tech ones) are fantastic - better than ever imho.

Still undisputed king, current horror bundle is great, recently also bought Hooked on Multiplayer 2019 and Very Positive 3 and Monthly is still going strong. Fanatical has 3-4 decent bundles a year, and of course 20 mystery garbage ones.

which bundle site is better then Humble even with Humbles diminished returns it's still the best bundle site..

only other ones are on the shallow end of the gene pool

Indiegala has been going strong for a long time, but it's no where near the quality of Humble Bundle and in fact has pulled back quite a bit on the bundle offers, used to be 2 - 3 new bundles a week.. now it's like 1 - 2 new bundles a week, and sometimes non..

Fanatical - is either hit or miss,, will offer really nice bundles occasionally, but seems to be moving towards Mystery bundles which are a mixed bag.. you can get really good stuff, or complete crap..

Well in all fairness, HB has been on a decline ever since 2013, IGN is only recent. But no, although I've seen a lot less game bundles offered there, it's still one of the best sources to get great games from at times.

Its been a while since HB has been declining

Really? The current Horror bundle seems to be great. The Crusader Kings 2 bundle was amazing. Every Humble Monthly is a fantastic deal for those who want the early unlocks - Slay the Spire has an all time low price of ~$10, Squad of $18, and you get both plus 4 more games for $12 (or less with subscription).

I think what's been declining is PC gamer's perspective of how good we have it. You can get Slay the Spire + 5 other games for $12 on PC, where as on Switch or PS4 it's $25 and has never been on sale.

Humblebundle is a bundle King and i dont see better site at last for now. For me next one is fanatical. Indiegala never was about quality, more about quantity. In my opinion, bad opinion about HB and generaly bundles come from:
1) General changes on the market. Developers are less wiling to put their games into bundle. Part of this is that many PPL wait with purchase on bundle. Also when they will put game in bundle many buyers are so called trader which decrease possibility and game price for long time after the bundle ends. Also many of Indie games was already bundle many times -it was easier on start to find good unbundled games. All of this decrease bundle quality and how often you can release realy good bundle.
2) Customers perspective. As we are used to bundles and this is psychologia effect. Also we already have part of games and huge backlog.
3) Some criticism is 'trendy' on forums. Like hate for IGN or epic. I dont say that some of this criticism is not based on some valid reasons but sometimes it is out of control.

Anyway there are still great bundles like crusader kings 2 or preaty good horror bundle. Also some monthly games are not bad:-)

The problem is just "mimimi" people who cry every week. Sometimes good bundles, some not interested. But qualitatively still the best.
Sure bundles like every 2 week or week bundle would be cool, but you must see the background. So many bundles CAN'T be always the best AAA mega ultra good games or awesome games.
I'm happy with that, sometimes it would be cool to have more, but Life goes on. And we have so many good bundle sites or sales. Video games can be very very cheap today, no worries. ;)

monthly services are going to interesting over the next 6 months .... if only there was a "netflix of gaming".