A Tale Of Three Diablos: Blizzard Discusses The Fluid Playerbases Of Its Iconic Series

It's a common belief that the player base for the series has largely migrated, with Diablo 3 being superseded by the newer Diablo 4 on one side and a revitalized Diablo 2: Resurrected on the other. According to Blizzard's Diablo Legacy executive producer, Matthew Cederquist, that is not the reality. He stated that Diablo 3 maintains a "massive" player base, counting active users in the "millions." These remarks came during a group interview at Blizzard, where the Legacy team, which oversees Diablo 3, discussed the state of the franchise.

"Each game has its own core players,"

— Cederquist

"There's actually millions of people that still play Diablo 3."

He acknowledged that the launch of Diablo 4 did draw some players away, but the effect was not permanent.

"Even when Diablo 4 came out, some players were cannibalised and brought over to D4, but there's still a massive player base for Diablo 3."

"Every single ladder season that comes out, you will see people transition from D4 back to D3 and play for that opening weekend, or that week or so, and they'll transition right back to D4. And vice versa D2."

Cederquist’s comments were made in response to a specific point raised by the former head of the Diablo franchise, Rod Fergusson. Before departing Blizzard for 2K, Fergusson told GameFile in March of the previous year that the company had more players for Diablo 2: Resurrected than Diablo 3 at that time. Cederquist suggested this was only a temporary snapshot of a much more dynamic situation. The audience for Diablo games demonstrates habits that are more fluid than those seen in other long-running Blizzard franchises.

"That's the cool thing about our community,"

— Cederquist continued.

"It's less like World of Warcraft: Classic, where that's your home, you don't move; that's mine, I don't go to retail. There's so much inter-cannibalisation."

Lead designer on the Diablo Legacy team, Tim Vasconcellos, elaborated on this difference in player behavior. He contrasted the long-form progression and group organization required in World of Warcraft with the more immediate action of the Diablo series. I do find the comparison between the two franchises and their communities to be an interesting one.

Vasconcellos pointed out the fundamental design differences that facilitate this player movement.

"There's not the same class-role dynamic saying hey we need a healer, we need a tank and then DPS,"

— he noted.

"Every class is DPS."

This design choice reduces the social hurdles for players.

"Furthermore, the social expectation isn't that we're going to commit to having to play together to progress content."

While playing with others can be more efficient and enjoyable, the ability for players to progress on their own is a core part of the experience.

This flexibility allows players to move between games with ease. Vasconcellos believes this suits the modern era, where people have many demands on their time. He noted that the player base has aged and often has more responsibilities.

"I'm a Diablo dad myself."

— he said.

"That's just the reality; I think Diablo suits those players."

I see, then, that the question of whether Diablo 2 consistently has more players than Diablo 3 is not a simple one to answer. Cederquist confirmed as much when the point was pressed again.

"No, no - it's not necessarily like that,"

— he responded.

"Our games fluctuate wildly, and it's because you have those seasonal contents."

He explained that Blizzard intentionally staggers the release schedules for new seasons across its titles.

"We're never going to have a D3 ladder stepping over a D2 ladder stepping over a D4 ladder. We want players to be able to say, Okay yeah, let me jump into this flavour of Diablo today, maybe this flavour of Diablo two weeks from now and so on."

This strategy appears to be working, as player activity in Diablo 2 recently saw a significant event. The game received a surprise expansion called Reign of the Warlock, which introduced the first new playable class to the game in 25 years. This launch coincided with the game's release on Steam and Game Pass, further expanding its potential audience. Considering Cederquist had already emphasized that "millions" of people were playing Diablo 2: Resurrected before these developments, the player base is likely to have seen substantial growth.