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.

    • Fosheze@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Look at what they just did for the new D2R ladder season. There were literally no patches at all. They just reset the ladder. It’s not like there are any glaring problems cough cough mosiac cough cough that need to be fixed or anything.

    • geissi@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Really sad what became of Blizzard.

      They provided Diablo II (2001) with updates until 2016.
      Starcraft (1998) became freeware in 2017 and received patches until 2022.

  • weedwhacking@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This game is the worst money I ever spent. It is what truly made me learn the hard way about buying on launch day

    • Swim@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      kinda bummed i bought so many skins, really hope they turn the ship around

      • sTeco@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        You are the reason blizzard gets away with releasing uninished games, whose only purpose is to maximizes sales beyond the base game

      • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        You understand people like you are DIRECTLY the cause of games these days sucking ass right? You guys buy games before they’re out and then buy up all their microtransaction bullshit, so why would they ever worry about improving or trying any harder when they know they have guaranteed money in the bank? Until people like you quit throwing money at this stuff, it’s only going to continue to decline.

        • Swim@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          i am the cause of your unhappiness and i will continue to microtransact. blizzard only got a small fraction of what i spend on games. get a job pleb

          • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I didn’t say I personally was being hurt by you, I said you are being hurt by you, I’m not affected by this directly. I don’t buy games until they’ve been out for a year at least and I don’t buy microtransactions regardless of the amount of money in my account, on principle. So you’re only serving to destroy your own future gaming. Also, I’ve never seen someone tell someone else to get a job that wasn’t secretly just living off their parents. Have a good one.

            • Swim@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              i appreciate your concern for my wellbeing but its misplaced.i also havent seen someone care so much about how others spend their money.

              • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                That’s just how my brain works, given any topic I’m going to suggest to you a way to save money on it.

                • Swim@lemmy.ca
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                  1 year ago

                  unsolicited advice due to personal issues, got it.

  • Cabrio@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    After witnessing one of the most successful RPG releases in recent history

    They better be referring to the release of BG3, because if they’re talking about D4…

  • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I loved the server test. Totally hooked. Bought it on launch and after a week I was done.

    After a few days it all seemed like a reskin with “retention” gimmicks and FOMO.

    TBH after like a decade, and playing it for some 100h, it’s a weak offering for a studio of that magnitude. I often feel they spent more on marketing that making the thing.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      After hearing what happened with Diablo Immortal I decided to wait a month before even considering it. Glad I did.

      • silentknyght@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Honestly, getting that way about A LOT of games this year. I played Starfield on game pass, got my fix in about 8 hours, and haven’t played since.

        • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Oh absolutely. Never pre-order games. At least wait a day to check user reviews and make sure it’s not immediately broken.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            With maybe the notable exception of multiplayer games, all games will be at least just as good a year after launch as they are at launch day.

            Add to it that in a year’s time there will be enough reviews out there from people who actually played it longer than 5h and the heavy marketing phase will be more than over so it’s actually possible to get a hype-free overview of it, AND the game itself will likely be better than at launch due to bug fixing in the meanwhile and maybe even some content added, and it’s the logical thing to never buy before or at launch and just wait.

            However most people have problems with “reward delaying” (and actual psychological term for the ability to wait for something to be more ‘rewarding’ before going for it) and “just have to have it now!” and that just overrides logic (assuming they even took the time to think about it in the first place).

  • sadbehr@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    Something to keep in mind is that a new season of D3 has recently come out (more interest) while D4 hasn’t had anything in a while (less interest). These two things will be bumping the numbers.

    P.S I’m a long time PoE and formerly D3player. I’m stoked I didn’t buy into D4. If anyone hasn’t tried it yet, a D4 YouTuber called Darth Microtransactions described PoE as ‘everything I wanted in D4 but more and free’.

    • bhj 🦥@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Oh fuck, is PoE supposed to be free? I’ve spent like $1000 on it in the last 10 years in cosmetics, stash tabs, and character slots.

      • sadbehr@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        Haha money well spent supporting an independent studio from a little country at the bottom of the world made by a group of people who are legitimately passionate about the game!

        Also just for fun $1k over 10 years = $100 a year. That’s not a bad amount imo! Also I’m guessing if you’ve spent that much money that you’ve spent an equally large amount of time playing!

  • GiantFloppyCock@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I still haven’t had the chance to play D4, but played a lot of D2 and some D3. Anyone here with some insight on what they fucked up with D4?

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Endgame sucks.

      Scaling content means there’s little power scaling variety, viable builds are very narrow so there’s not much build variety, the leveling curve is punishingly slow because they are trying to live service it, and seasons have lame rewards and boring features so far. Dungeon variety is nearly non-existent and poorly randomized with time wasting objective design.

      Also it’s a Diablo game where none of the endgame content takes place in Hell.

      TL;DR: Designing games as a live service means designing around time wasting and anti-player choices.

      • monk@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Agreed. It’s a solid game that just gets boring. I enjoyed the campaign and the co-op play. I liked the variety of play of the classes.

        But since the launch they’ve just made the game boring. The first big patch just nerfed every build. It’s not a competitive game - they just decided you should have less fun I guess.

        Gems are super boring - instead of being excited for them to drop, inactively ignore them. And the first seasons only mechanic is… fancy gems.

        The towns are designed to make you run around a ton. The mount mechanics are actively hostile (maps have areas where you need to dismount to progress, then there’s a 10s cool down before you can mount again). Inventory management kinda sucks. The whole loot management part of the game is kinda flat and that’s a major component of this series.

        It’s weird because this was the smoothest launch of a Diablo and the game felt feature rich as you leveled. But the end game is so fucking boring. They have so many things in D3 they could have just copied but instead we’ll end up with yet another patch of nerfs in a single player game.

      • GiantFloppyCock@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Damn, really disappointing to hear. I felt like D3 was ok but for some reason couldn’t quite match up to D2, and so was hoping that D4 would deliver. But now I know to at least adjust my expectations if/when I finally play.

        • kromem@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The first playthrough is great. Open world is awesome.

          Just don’t expect to get to level 100 and minmax your loot, as you’ll almost certainly drop off before then.

    • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Well compared to D2, the progression was reverse linear, you started off strong at Level 1, and cleared rooms and then you became weaker as you levelled up.

      To maintain your strength, you needed to have the optimal gear in every slot (head, armor, gloves, boots, etc), and have an optimal spec.

      The issue was that the items were egregiously generic, and were replaced pretty much on a constant basis, anything you picked up was an upgrade until Level 50, when “Sacred” and “Artifact” became a class, and your entire inventory was outdated.

      The main issue was they began by making Diablo: Immortal, a mobile game and midway through development remembered it’s a PC game and not a mobile micro transaction machine, and kept the MT shop in the game regardless (which retails for $100, mind you)

      I’m a Diablo 1&2 Veteran, who has meleed Uber Diablo to death with a Fury Druid in 2022, soloed Diablo in 1996 with a Warrior, and I’ve never been more bored playing an ARPG than Diablo 4.

      My best friend is a stoner, so he got far more value out of it. To be fair, he also gets a lot of value out of staring at walls, so there’s that.

      • GiantFloppyCock@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The game industry seems to have been heavily infected with capitalistic bullshit. It’s really sad to see what was once a fun combination of art, entertainment, nerdiness, and tech turn into another soulless cash machine.

        • mriormro@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The game industry has always been deeply entrenched in capitalism…

          Look at the arcades of old. They were basically just slot machines for kids without the chance for a payout.

        • float@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          There’s tons of good indie games. And you don’t even need a 2000€ PC to play them.

          • 6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            I’m just sitting around playing Shattered Pixel Dungeon and, while id prefer something narrative driven, it’s been giving me the happies for quite a while.

    • StructuredPair@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      From my time playing it, the looting wasn’t satisfying nor was the combat. In looting, the drop rate of things good or useful for your class seemed too low. For combat, it kinda felt like there were wild swings in difficulty that made level progress kinda disappointing. Some of this may have been fixed more recently; I have not played in at least two months.

    • sayitghoul@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The short and sweet answer is that it’s just not Diablo. It does not compare with any of the previous Diablo releases in the slightest. It might as well be a generic mobile game like immortal…

    • Cheers@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      In D2 finding gear felt fun. Runes were rare but powerful and sets/legendaries offered different build paths. You also had control over magic find with the ability to lower your power to increase magic find.

      D3 (much later) expanded sets so that a number of builds were viable per class, making it fun to find any piece of gear. They also added rifts to challenge yourself to no end. The devs liked watching people push higher tiers and celebrated it.

      D4 does not have runes or sets. Every legendary effect can to removed from the legendary and added to any yellow piece of gear. As a result, you’re typically chasing random yellow items for a .1% increase that all feels very samey until you find a unique. Currently, uniques are not even close to all being viable. Also blizz activity monitors unique drop rates and decreases them/bans people for finding ways to increase drop rates. The devs do not like people pushing harder stuff because that means they spending less time looking at the intentionally shitty (free) transmogs. They want you to grind away for days to get incremental success so you tire of your looks and buy skins and battle passes. If that explanation sucks, then I have no fucking idea what they’re doing. Maybe they expect us to grind because they don’t know how to create more content?

    • DeriHunter@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I finished the campaign with my wife and we had fun do it together than after 90 hrs or so (we kept the screen a lot so I’m not sure its actually 90 hrs) I deleted it and went on, right when season 1 started. I tried to come back to it yesterday alone and it was just… Dull. The game was boring as hell playing alone, after 2 hours I deleted it again

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Being Blizzard’s highest-sold game ever

    Do you guys not have phones? With an internet connection to read about the things Blizzard has been doing with their games recently?

    • Swim@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      correction, they were feeding us medicine but forgot the sugar.

      • Cheers@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        That implies they’re doing something good for us. This is like giving your friend a box of smokes and then offering them chewing gum to hit the nicotine fix. It didn’t help, but I guess I have some gum now.

    • Xanvial@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Last few updates there’s only buff I think. Seems the nerf patch only happened before season 1

    • Sparhawk87@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      Just my 2 cents but could be the extra 2 Billion people in the world since release. When wow came out internet wasn’t as widespread and fast as now, as well as anyone buying into wow after the 2nd or 3rd expansion might have trepidation with the sheer amount of content.

        • Kata1yst@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Grim Dawn! Successor to TQ and measurably better than any other arpg on the market (in my opinion).

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            I didn’t enjoy how the “correct” way to play was to spend your points on stats instead of fun abilities.

            Last Epoch scratches the ARPG itch for me and has a lot of customization (each skill has its own talent tree that can change how it behaves.)

          • SilverFlame@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I enjoyed Grim Dawn up until the last boss. I haven’t played any of the DLC though, it’s worth going back to it.

            • AWildMimicAppears@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              A new Expansion is in the works too! Crate Entertainment really cares about their game and it shows, not many games out there with that kind of long-term support

    • kosanovskiy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They all want to be that which they cannot become… ans we can’t become that either cause we don’t have a PhD in PoE.

  • GerPrimus@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Everyone thinks they want to play the next new hit. We are not ready for it at all. We want consistency, something we know. We are not ready for anything new.We are too old. We as gamers should admit that to ourselves and the gaming industry should too.The next generation of gamers is in the starting blocks and is playing whatever they want. You should concentrate on those. But that’s the door for the small indie studios and not the big ones.McDonald’s recognized it decades ago: children are the customers of tomorrow.

  • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I’ve no interest in the Diablo series, but am I the only one who hates streaming as a measurement of success? It’s like the gaming media equivalent to when journalists report on Xitter hashtags… it’s just the easiest, dumbest metric available.

    • nanoUFO@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      1 year ago

      Probably because companies do their best to hide most metrics of purchases and players. Remember when some smart fella used the hyper accurate steam achievements to be able to derive how many people owned a game? Steam patched that out and now the best metric is based on number of review scores but that depends on the game, genre and score rating etc…