The World Championships of Warhammer is almost upon us. Qualifying players from around the world are flying into Atlanta right now, no doubt fretting as their carefully crafted armies are committed to the horrors of international air travel. The battles begin on November 6 - but what are the top Warhammer 40,000 players in the world bringing to the fight?
My first impression - having recently been looking at the distorted Magic the Gathering Standard meta - is that Warhammer 40k is in rude health. Some of the Warhammer 40k factions are clearly more popular than others, but the field is divided among a huge range of armies and archetypes.
For this summary I've relied on data from 40k Event Tracker, which lists the armies and detachments for 411 players in a convenient tabular format that was easy for me to data delve.
27 factions are being played, with only Imperial Agents completely absent from the field - not a surprise really, as the Agents' 40k codex is basically just a tool to provide rules for common allied units to other armies. The Aeldari are the number one most popular faction, but they make up less than 9% of the meta. The Deathwatch are the least popular list, not quite making up 1% of the field.
Surprising no-one, Space Marines are the second most popular faction with almost 8% of the meta, and would be first on the list were we to roll the named Space Marine Chapters into the tally with the generic marines. When we look at 40k detachments, the Marines' Gladius Task force comes in at number one overall, with almost 6% of the field - ironically, almost half of the armies using this Codex Compliant detachment are the Black Templars, who traditionally treat the Codex Astartes as expensive toilet paper.
The World Eaters' Berzerker Warband is the next most popular detachment, with just over 5% of the meta; it's great to see a strong showing for an army that was a bit lost before its codex arrived. That's tied with the Aeldari Aspect Host, which - since the nerfing of the Ynnari detachment - is both the most powerful Aeldari detachment, and the one with the coolest new models. Never underestimate the role that good models play in the meta.
The last standout detachment is the Adeptus Mechanicus Haloscreed Battleclade, making up just over 4% of the meta. I'm noting it here because it's the most popular detachment that isn't from a Codex, and it's still only one in 25 lists. It's been a hot minute since a broken free detachment like More Dakka came and overwhelmed the meta.
| Faction | Players | Meta % |
| Aeldari | 35 | 8.52 |
| Space Marines | 32 | 7.79 |
| Adeptus Mechanicus | 28 | 6.81 |
| World Eaters | 24 | 5.84 |
| Death Guard | 23 | 5.60 |
| Imperial Knights | 20 | 4.87 |
| Necrons | 19 | 4.62 |
| T'au Empire | 16 | 3.89 |
| Chaos Space Marines | 16 | 3.89 |
| Adepta Sororitas | 16 | 3.89 |
| Orks | 14 | 3.41 |
| Chaos Knights | 13 | 3.16 |
| Chaos Daemons | 13 | 3.16 |
| Blood Angels | 13 | 2.92 |
| Leagues of Votann | 12 | 2.92 |
| Genestealer Cult | 12 | 2.92 |
| Drukhari | 12 | 2.92 |
| Black Templars | 12 | 2.92 |
| Astra Militarum | 12 | 2.92 |
| Tyranids | 11 | 2.68 |
| Adeptus Custodes | 11 | 2.68 |
| Space Wolves | 10 | 2.43 |
| Emperor's Children | 9 | 2.19 |
| Dark Angels | 9 | 2.19 |
| Grey Knights | 8 | 1.95 |
| Thousand Sons | 7 | 1.70 |
| Deathwatch | 40 | 0.97 |
Will you be watching the World Championships live on Warhammer TV? Are you going to attend? We'd love to see any event pics in the Wargamer Discord community.
Do you enjoy overthinking Warhammer 40k lore more than its competitive scene? Check out this recent article on the Anathame - a weapon that has caused so much trouble in 40k history.