I mean , it fell out of favor with the rise of reliable accurate firearms . so essentially the same reason the bow and arrow fell out of favor . That said , it had an amazing run initially developed in the 3 rd century BCE , substantially improved upon by Zhuge Liang in the 3 Kingdoms Period and turned into a repeating crossbow the heavy machine gun of its age in the 3 rd century CE , the crossbow was the Chinese ranged weapon of choice until as late as the First SinoJapanese War of 189495 . So literally a 2 , 200 year streak until it was completely supplanted by the firearm . Except , oh wait , it ' s still used by Chinese police today in antisnipersilent situations . So their use is definitely more niche these days , but the streak continues unbroken 2 , 300 years later .