2022 saw the downfall of the small/medium army community, leaving little armies surviving. However, this year has seen new (and old) armies rise. Along with this, many more have plans to enter the community whether it be as a new army or an old one. With that said, the plan to revive the small/medium community is well underway and we can expect to see more competition very soon.
During Covid, the community saw a rise in armies, both in terms of maxes and the number of active armies. However, as Covid dwindled and daily lives were gradually resumed, armies witnessed a new low. It was not the worst situation that armies had been in but it challenged the small/medium army community. 2022 started out with 14 armies being considered for the Top Tens. This means that 14 armies had events to submit. Technically, this doesn’t mean that there were only 14 armies in the community. Despite that, the number of armies was large with half of them being s/m.
2022 also, however, saw many armies either shut down, go on hiatus, merge into another army, or fade out of the community. A list of some of the dates (from when the news came out from media sources) goes as follows –
- January 1 – Lime Green Army merges into Templars
- January 18 – Celts merge into Secret Service
- February 15 – Eclipse of CP merges into the Army of Darkness
- February 28 – Fire Warriors shut down
- March 8 – Less than a month after Eclipse merged, the Army of Darkness shut down
- March 18 – Chefs closed their kitchens for good and the People’s Imperial Confederation goes on hiatus
- May 28 – Silver Empire closes its doors
- June 15 – Great Knights merge into the Special Weapons and Tactics
- July 4 – Mercenaries rebrand into Revolutionaries
- July 9 – Secret Service cease operations, closing its doors
- July 25 – Bose DK shuts down
- July 27 – Magma Clan merges into Special Weapons and Tactics
- August 4 – Revolutionaries announce its closure
- October 11 – Cherries shut down
- October 24 – Strawhats bid the community adieu
- November 13 Water Vikings announce a temporary shutdown
- November 18 – Red Ravagers closes its doors
Red Ravagers’ closing event
Even in this selection of closures which were released by media outlets, we see a significant amount of armies closing their doors, leading to the death of the s/m community. 17 armies overall were on the list, 16 of them were typically small/medium armies. This is not a complete list so we can assume that these weren’t the only armies with many others fading in and out of the community. One example would be the Lime Green Army which returned but then shut down later in the year. It’s clear to see that, by this point (in 2022), the death of the small/medium army community was imminent. By the end of the year, not many small/medium armies remained. In fact, on the Top Ten for December 18-24, there was only one small/medium army present.
With that being said, 2022 seems to have ended positively as we went into 2023 with an overfilled Top Ten. It saw the return of four armies to the Top Tens. Two of these were revivals and one was a new army. Many other armies have sparked interest in a revival along with a new army in the making too.
On January 28, Warlords of Kosmos held their revival event after hinting at their return earlier in the year. They returned to the community after ending operations and merging into another army in 2020.
Warlords of Kosmos’ revival event.
Their revival added to the amount of small/medium armies in the community. However, they won’t be alone as the People’s Imperial Confederation announced their ‘grand reopening’ is going to be held on February 4. This is in one week’s time. Two others who are getting ready to make their way into the community are the Janitors and Penguins of Madagascar. If the (re)openings of these armies are successful then we will have at least eight small/medium armies.
To further increase this number we could see the revival or creation of other armies. An example of this is Secret Service. While nothing has been confirmed, there was an announcement asking for people’s thoughts on a revival. This could just mean nothing but it could lead to a further increase in the growing small/medium army community.
Kyle, former SS leader, asking for people’s thoughts on a revival
With the plan to revive the s/m community well underway, Club Penguin Armies interviewed People’s Imperial Confederation leader, Hidcre to ask them for their thoughts on the revival of small and medium armies.
Do you think that the s/m community will successfully make its comeback in 2023?
Honestly there’s a big chance it might, so many new and old sm armies are coming into the league, not many I know about but this definitely shows the smaller side of this community still shows some heart to come back. Some larger armies are decaying in size, while others are growing really quick, but sm armies are slowly getting their small little grasp of what could possibly be a steady sm army community dedicated for them.
What do you think led to the downfall of s/m armies in 2022?
I think we can all agree life’s just been busy, like nobody has time, and if they do they just feel burned out. 2019-2020 was obviously the best year because if you wasnt an essential worker, you was just stuck at home. Now that basically all restrictions have been lifted, everyones gone back to their jobs, school, college, nobody has time for cpa anymore and thats just the reality, plus with all the CPPS’s shutting down, there was really nowhere to play other than battleground.
Do you think that being an s/m leader is harder than it used to be?
It was never “harder than it used to be” if you ask me, you still have to put in the work to recruit, build your army from the ground up, train soldiers find good hcom, and everything else that comes with it
. No matter what era you’re in you still have to put in the work.
Do you have any advice for s/m armies who have either come into or are coming into the community?
Dont rush nothin, jus trust the process and build your future army from the ground up, yo time finna come, jus push yourself and those around you.
From their interview, we can see that they have hopes for the small/medium army community to bounce back once more. However, will this be the case? Will the s/m community revive itself? Or will something similar to last year happen which saw a lot of armies involved at the start of the year but shut down fairly quickly?