After witnessing one of the most successful RPG releases in recent history, Diablo 4 seems to have lost all its viewership online. Being Blizzard’s highest-sold game ever, many expected the fourth installment in the Diablo 4 franchise to prosper, but instead, Diablo 3 has surpassed it suddenly.
On June 6, Diablo 4 was released worldwide as the game sold more than 10 million copies within 3 days of launch. This made it Blizzard’s highest-selling game of all time. However, it seems like the game continues to lose traction, losing more than 90% of its viewership since its June launch.
Rather Diablo 3 has surpassed its successor, even though it was released 11 years ago. With its new Season 29, Diablo 3 now sits at a weekly average of 3,000 viewers on Twitch with a peak of 5,600 viewers on September 17. For context, Diablo 4 has a weekly average of 940 viewers at the time of writing.
Diablo 4 saw a peak viewership of 940,000 at the time of its release, ten times more than Diablo 3 ever achieved. However, it has lost almost 99% of its peak viewership and sits at a weekly average of 940 on Twitch.
Were they fun? I have way more fun playing arcade games than I do most Blizzard games these days (and I have more money left after).
I’m not sure if they were or not. I wasn’t around during that time. I’m more commenting on this prevailing narrative that video games were this auteur-focused medium that’s just now being sullied by capitalism. That’s a false narrative and I think what’s really happening is that we’re becoming more and more aware of just how insidious unchecked capitalism can really be and we’re noticing it more and more in the things that we love. Whereas in the past, we may have been less critical or interrogative of the industry as a whole.
Agree to disagree I guess, I think it’s far worse and far more prevalent.