A confirmed hit (pic: Activision Blizzard)
Blizzard is celebrating the fact that Diablo 4 is now their fastest-selling game ever, although they won’t say exactly how much it’s sold.
Usually, the more fans complain about something the more successful it is. That’s certain always true of Call Of Duty and despite all the upset about Diablo’s mobile spin-off, and Blizzard in general, Diablo 4 has already been confirmed as a massive hit.
The lack of sales figures may be a result of Microsoft’s general refusal to discuss such details, but Blizzard has said it’s their fastest-selling game ever. They have talked numbers though, revealing that people have played it for a combined 93 million hours so far – and that’s only the four days of early access before the game was officially released for everyone on Monday.
As maths fans will be aware, 93 million hours is equivalent to 10,000 years. According to Blizzard that’s the equivalent of one person playing 24 hours a day since the dawn of human civilisation. We’re not sure how you’d work out how many people that implies have bought the game but it’s clearly a lot.
The critical reception to Diablo 4 has also been mostly positive, with the game earning 87 on Metacritic and 89 on OpenCritic. Although that’s a little less than other recent games such as Street Fighter 6 and Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom.
‘This is a moment years in the making for the Diablo 4 team,’ said Diablo boss Rod Fergusson. ‘Since the game was first announced in 2019, the support from millions of players around the world drove us toward this release of our dark vision of Sanctuary. Hail Lilith, Blessed Mother.’
Blizzard has already been hinting at what comes next for the game, suggesting that it will become a live service title similar to Destiny 2, with two expansions already planned and two seasons of new content in the works.
The implication is that there will not be a Diablo 5 for at least a decade (there was 11 years between Diablo 3 and 4) which means that that the franchise will presumably remain multiformat for all that time, with no danger that Microsoft will turn it into an Xbox console exclusive.
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Blizzard is celebrating the fact that Diablo 4 is now their fastest-selling game ever, although they won’t say exactly how much it’s sold.