How is the online matchmaking scene?

[EmperorVolo]

Are there a lot of players playing? I want to get this but am unsure of the player base and how the online aspect currently is presented. Is it good? Are people playing this competitively? Are there rankings? Is it peer to peer? Give me some info I'm totally in the dark this game came onto my radar days ago and I don't have much information.

[FloosWorld]

In order of your questions:
- Hard to tell as the game is currently in advanced access with Premium users getting 7 days EA
- Judging from the other "Age of" games, matchmaking in 1v1 usually works whereas in Team Games it can cause a huge skill difference between players
- There's a competitive scene, but it always has been small for AoM. No idea whether that'll change with Retold.
- Ranked uses Elo with no rank tiers
- It's server-based

[Kimochi]

about 2 mins max wait queuing for ranked for me

[astator]

1v1 automated queue wait time is usually between a minute and two minutes for me. There is Elo-based matchmaking and some websites are prepared to have a leaderboard once the game officially releases.