Diablo 4 has become Blizzard Entertainment’s fastest-selling game to date, according to publisher Activision Blizzard, which also produces high titles such as World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and, of course, the Starcraft series. But what exactly does such a statement imply? Because, by the looks of it, it’s really amazing!
Hear this! Diablo 4 has been played for 93 million hours, or over 10,000 years, according to Activision Blizzard’s latest press release. Can you believe that? If that’s not a major success, we don’t know what else could be. Also, considering the first gamers just got their hands on it a little over 100 hours ago (June 2 for those who preordered any of its special editions), we’d say it’s doing very well. How impressive!
And there’s more!
The press announcement on Diablo 4’s high success definitely makes a point of saying that it applies to sales on both consoles and PCs but doesn’t go into specifics. How so? Well, that’s because they don’t want future installments in the same series to be judged by their predecessors. As a result, publishers rarely reveal this information.
So, titles such as “fastest selling” or “best of them all” and similar claims are often supported by player counts rather than actual sales figures or monetary sums.
What are your thoughts so far about Diablo 4’s development?
Of course, the PC releases are unique among Blizzard games, as the console releases of Diablo 3 weren’t until 2013 (PlayStation 3/ Xbox 360) and 2014 (PlayStation 4/ Xbox One). However, on June 5, Diablo 4 came out on the PS4/ PS5, Xbox One/ Xbox Series X, and PC at the same time.
How significant, therefore, is Diablo 4’s launch? Well, no hurry here because we’ll know more this fall in September when Activision Blizzard presents its quarterly performance to investors based on the June performance. Whether or whether Diablo 4’s multiplatform debut on day one resulted in sales that were several times Activision Blizzard’s initial estimates of 3, 4, and 5 million, the debate remains valid.