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It's been harder to take riot's dev posts seriously since the last one talking about monster champions, where they pointed out a correlation as if it were the cause. Yes, it does happens that monster champions aren't popular, yet it is completely unfair to dismiss the fact that the majority of them have awkard or niche kits, suffer from being old and/or have never updated (some with minor gameplay tweaks), or can be replaced by champions that have a wider range of options or are just easier to play for what the monster counterpart can achieve.
Data can tell you anything you want depending on how you compare the parameters and it is possible it to be the case in some degree. No, i don't think these modes were popular at all, but i don't think the reason was for not being a SR+ experience.
0 - It's not reasonable to compare PvE to SR/PvP
They're just too different to draw any direct comparison, all the following points will likely come back to it.
1 - Ranked culture killed casual
League was made to be a video game sport, good but it alienates casual players. We have a scaling complexity on champions (even if riot denies it), smurfs, weird matchmaking, toxic players that can't stand the game unless they are winning, balance nightmares and the list goes on. League haven't been friendly towards casual players for long already and the only refuge for that is ARAM, COOPvsAI and blinds (subject to your luck). Competitive players are the majority of the playerbase and they'd likely have little to no interest on a game mode that isn't competitive at all. It is more likely for older SR+ modes to not be played as often (or cause burnout) as players put victory way higher than anything else. It's just natural that they'd try a couple of matches and never come back. Dev posts were never clear on how the comparison is made, but it would be completely unfair to ignore players profiles and preferences to evaluate how popular a game mode is.
I'd be surprised if the majority of the players that stuck long to Odyssey: Extraction or Star Guardian: Invasion consisted of hardcore climbers and not COOPvsAI or ARAM players. PvE+ appeal is closer to the latter.
2 - There more than X mode vs SR engagement
Let's ignore that the most likely segment of the playerbase interested in PvE is likely on the casual side for a moment.
Isn't there more to draw from than measuring time spent across modes? Where these players came from (new, inactive, ARAM, ranked?), and how long they stuck with the game (even if they went to SR afterwards) if they weren't regulars? Also interesting to see if said game mode increased the time spent in game as a total, or how many players took it as a primary mode, and the preferable group size (maybe it was less popular as a solo mode, or the other way around). Did the addition pushed the game and/or fanart in social medias beyond the usual? Or even drawing a more reasonable comparison like SGI x OE, as there mode structure was updated.
It seems more reasonable to take a look on what these modes accomplished during it's brief existence than comparing to the standard options as players are already invested on them for years. If a new mode can do something that the current options can, then it may be worth some investment.
3 - You can't play X champion
That's an extra weakness PvE modes have and only Hunt of the Blood Moon and OVERCHARGE share this aspect, but these had the advantage of taking a single role group that could resonate with all players that enjoy such roles. It was a significant cut for players but at least it was less arbitrary than belonging in the skill line and also a larger group that any PvE mode offered so far (17 and 21 respectively).
SGI suffered the most as the champions where just their regular versions and couldn't be multi picked. There were a total of 10 champions composed of 1 tank, 3 enchanters, 3 burst mages and 3 marksmen. One interesting aspect of this roster is that players could play backup champions if their primary option was taken as they had 3 of each, at the same time it didn't offer as much diversity as it could. The two outliers were Poppy and Ezreal as the only champions with no direct replacement options within their groups. For each group a player disliked playing, a third of the options were taken away from the poll. It was possible for you miss your champion and role altogether and be forced onto a different champion through the match (or commit dodge). You really had to like the poll available to enjoy the mode, as it was just PvE bullet hell with league characters.
As a side point, Syndra was the only champion that had a worthless R, and could be seen as not being an option for many as well.
OE fixed most of these issues by allowing multipick and offering a set of champions that have different roles. This time the roster was limited to 5 champions that could be customized with augments (passive power ups for abilities), a perfect chance to get players into giving them a chance again with the new skins and powers. What didn't changed was that they were still subject to their base counterparts and what could be expanded from there.
According to the post event dev blog and graph, the most popular champion (by a landslide) was Yasuo, as the one that had the most dynamic upgrades and and abilities, followed by Jinx (and both were still apar with the previous year champions design). On the other end we have Sona as the least dynamic champion from the bunch, which also had the least dynamic options. Malphite was an interesting one as it was also an old and less dynamic champion, but it had really flashy and dynamic upgrades to compensate it, and stuck right at the middle.
Of course, popularity can also be tied to the champion performance, but in a game mode that has no stakes, the fun factor is way more impactful.
While the smaller poll did great to sell the event (and make it viable), it also struggled to take full advantage of it. These events could achieve higher popularity if they had a proper planning to ensure they can make the most of it with the minimum available, for SGI that means a better playstyle distribution (and multipick), for OE it means favoring fancier champions on their respective roles that have more room for crazy upgrades like Yasuo did. We can't expect players to be interested in these modes if they dislike the champions available.
In both cases the skins comes first but the gameplay is what defines if players will play it or not.
There are more than 150 champions in the game and yet, somehow, every champion has a dedicated playerbase that will mostly, if not only, play them, including rotative modes, even if the champion is terrible in it.
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This point onward will be (mostly) dedicated to OE as it contains features that weren't available in SGI.
4 - PvE modes lacked inbuilt variance
It is already partially acknowledge but i'll reinforce just in case.
There were four "variance sources" within the mode - team comp, augments, hazards and power ups.
Team comp was the main factor and a 5 champion polls doesn't offer much. Considering certain champions won't be options for some players, it is more of a matter on how popular or good certain champions are in the mode (and difficulty) than anything the game mode can do.
Augments did contributed for team mono team comps to have different roles, but they're less noticeable than a different champion. On the individual level they had the same issue that runes face today, a tendency to become static after a while with an occasional change here and there to match a strategy, mission or force change by yourself. Some augments would just be dismissed completely as they weren't as interesting or fun to use and/or good enough, yet they had the same cost to equip. It could be argued that getting them randomly is also some sort of replay factor but it acts more of a chore than a real incentive to play again.
Hazards failed as they were mostly expected to appear on given stages in corresponding difficulties, and it wasn't even clear if they were random or not. Power ups were slightly different as they had a fixed count per run but where spread semi-randomly over the stages.
5 - Certain aspects and rules can't be broke in PvP
PvP modes have a symmetry aspect that cannot be broken. When you start the match both sides have a similar amount of power and money, any factor that breaks this balance is either earned by a team or taken away by the opposing team. On the champion power level side, we have space dragon god losing to an assassin obsessed with the number 4, regardless of their "actual" power level not be nearly on the same league. The only true distinct aspect are the champions on each side and players using them, which is why Ultimate Spell Book and URF also follow these rules by buffing both sides and Nexus Blitz takes the competitive reward side through random events.
This restriction doesn't exist to PvE modes, allowing both sides to have distinct powers and/or a significant leverage towards one side. Both Doom Bots (that isn't classified in the PvE experience) and OE took advantage of this new space and to deliver new experiences wouldn't be possible in PvP. That was what made DB appealing, the idea of facing an overwhelming team of bots without any additional help, and in OE the augments made you into a doom bot.
Malphite leaping by using empowered attacks, Yasuo with boomerang tornadoes that increased in size, Ziggs mines healing allies, Sona's R fired in an asterisk pattern, Jinx firing 3 rockets with a trail of fire. These additions were all amazing ways to push champions power forward way beyond their power budget (or maybe not) that would never be expected nor imagined without the mode that made it possible. No one would ever expect AP support Yasuo to be a thing as it makes absolutely no sense, yet OE made that possible... and much more.
6 - Odyssey: Extraction wasn't plug and play
Any other new mode was static no matter how many times you played it, any match played could happen regardless of when it was played. By adding augments to SGI, OE became the first mode with a native progression, but that wouldn't click for the first few matches. There was no way the mode could be successful if players weren't willing to commit to it, and OE demanded commitment.
Want to try a particular augment or combination? Good luck rolling that 1/(15-N) chance every match for how long it takes, on each champion you want to play, and also complete the missions to get full augment build. There were a total of 75 augments to collect, if we took the rate of 3 augments per match (i recall it to be 1 or 2 per match), it would take 25 OE matches to get all of them (which some weren't available in lower difficulties), and that's doesn't include the missions to unlock slots. Unfortunately, the only way to progress was by playing the mode itself. You weren't allowed get anything for it unless hopped in, even if you played 20+ SR and/or ARAM matches (which could be a great reminder that the mode is wacky and may be worth giving a shot).
It feels completely out of touch to hear that statement when the mode demands players to play a dozen of matches to get it going. There was a catch up bundle past the first week but there's no one someone would buy it if it didn't enjoyed the mode at all.
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If you ignore all of the points listed above, then yes, these modes weren't popular because they were different from standard the league experience. Saying PvE modes take too much resources to work and aren't worth it is fine and all if you at least acknowledge and weight the many other unaddressed issues they had as well.
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