One of the big selling points of Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm when it was first released, was that unlike League of Legends or DotA 2, where games can drag out into stalemates if one team doesn't grab an early advantage, HotS was almost always over within 15-20 minutes.
While this is largely dependant on the map - since size and sub-objectives are a major factor in game length - new data shows that across the board games of HotS have been getting longer and longer since the game's launch.
Back in early June, few games went over 20 minutes, with those that did rarely going more than a minute beyond that. However over the past couple of months games have grown longer by around 10 per cent each, with the largest maps now having an average game length that's approaching 23 minutes. While this isn't significant enough to suggest big game changes need to be made, it's interesting to note that stalemates are becoming far more common in the game now that people are learning more of its intricacies.
However, if this is a trend that continues as people get better, Blizzard may indeed need to make some changes to improve the competitive nature of the game and make it so that it doesn't boil down into face offs where neither team can secure a decisive win.
This is the difficulty of making a game that is designed to allow comebacks even late game, it makes the team that's ahead that bit more defensive.
