HoMM3 has a cult following among lots of 25-45 years old males. During recent elections, one of candidates mentioned that he enjoys playing HoMM3 a lot, comments under the video were like 80% "I'll vote for anyone who plays HoMM3" and alike.
In the 2000s they were among the go-to strategy games. The hot-seat mode probably helped. Of course, the publishers and devs saw little profit from all that following—unlike middle-aged dudes selling pirate CDs in mall stands.
HOMM 5 was developed by Nival, a major Russian dev and publisher at that time—though the 4 and 5 games weren't as famed, afaik.
