Since its June launch, the modern warfare real-time strategy game Broken Arrow has grappled with achieving optimal faction balance. Despite the developers’ dedicated efforts, recent statistics reveal that one side consistently holds a distinct advantage. Attaining a perfect equilibrium between factions is a common hurdle for even the most acclaimed RTS titles, and Steel Balalaika’s intensely realistic military simulation is no exception. To address player feedback and concerns, the team has been meticulously tracking in-game metrics and has now publicly shared comprehensive win rate data, confirming a slight, but noticeable, bias towards one team.
Our previous review of Broken Arrow highlighted its incredible attention to detail as both a strength and a weakness. The game presents a challenging and demanding learning curve, which can be both an allure and a deterrent for players. Its narrative, depicting escalating global tensions between US and Russian forces across single-player campaigns and 5v5 skirmishes, is uncompromising and direct – a key part of its draw. However, the game has persistently struggled with faction balance, a situation that the developers are now actively working to rectify.
[Video content: A developer update discussing game balance and future features for Broken Arrow.]
In a recent blog post, the developers, Steel Balalaika, shared insights into their journey, noting that Broken Arrow stands as their inaugural major project and a significant achievement for their small, dedicated team of about ten individuals. Following the game’s release, the studio has grown, welcoming new specialists to enhance development efficiency, introduce a wider array of in-game units, and realize ambitious concepts previously beyond their reach.
The post emphasizes that balance is, and always has been, a critical element for Broken Arrow and similar games. The developers, being gamers themselves, admit to engaging in lively ‘forum wars’ over unit strengths. Since launch, they’ve observed passionate community discussions concerning faction power, ‘overpowered’ units, and other balance issues. While initially lacking formal data, the team has now established internal metrics, allowing them to quantify these community sentiments.
[Image: A chart illustrating Broken Arrow win rates across various ELO levels, showing a consistent difference between factions.]
Overall, faction win rates have shown remarkable consistency, maintaining a roughly 7% difference. This advantage consistently favors the Russian forces, boasting a 53.66% win rate compared to the USA’s 46.34% across all ELO ranges (excluding mirror matches). While data indicates a slight uptick in American win rates at the highest ELO tiers, this represents a very small fraction of the player base.
Even more striking is the analysis of specialization combination distributions, which plots their popularity against their respective win rates. The key finding here is that every single Russian specialization option outperforms all of the USA’s options. The developers stated that the most recent patch was directly informed by these data insights, and they hope this transparency will help players understand the rationale behind current and future balance adjustments.
[Image: A chart comparing Broken Arrow win rates for various specialization combinations, highlighting the Russian faction’s consistent advantage.]
Beyond balancing efforts, Steel Balalaika also brings exciting news. They’ve been diligently developing a highly requested feature: allied bots capable of fighting alongside players. The aim is to create bots that are both dependable and adaptable to diverse in-game scenarios. This feature is currently undergoing final testing and will soon be integrated into the custom lobby options.
For those who appreciate realistic combat, a selection of top war games on PC is available, alongside the best multiplayer titles of 2025 for competitive play.
Do you prefer to stick to established meta strategies, or do you enjoy the challenge of playing as the underdog? Join the community discussion to share your thoughts!