Diablo IV Is Already the Fastest-Selling Game of All Time for Blizzard

Blizzard announced that in just four days, the action RPG Diablo IV has already reached a major milestone as it is now the fastest-selling title of all time for the company on both console and PC.

“This is a moment years in the making for the Diablo IV team,” said Rod Fergusson, general manager of all things Diablo. “We’re extremely proud to offer players the richest story ever told in a Diablo game. Players have a range of choices, including personal character customization, equipping personalized skills for battling horrific demons, or collecting Legendary loot to support your playstyle while discovering new ones. 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.” 

“Our vision at Blizzard is to create legendary experiences for all to share, and Diablo IV is an incredible realization of that vision,” said Mike Ybarra, President of Blizzard Entertainment. “With highly customizable gameplay, gripping storytelling, and plenty of options around how to engage with the world, this masterfully crafted expression of the Diablo universe is an outstanding example of what our talented development teams are capable of. Whether you’re a veteran of the series or diving into Sanctuary for the first time, we welcome players to the global launch of Diablo IV.”

For the sake of comparison, Diablo 3 did set the all-time record for fastest-selling PC game with 3.5 million copies sold back in 2012. Now, Blizzard didn’t share how many units were sold in the first four days, but a big contributing factor between these two tiles is that Diablo VI launched on PC and consoles simultaneously while Diablo 3 only launched on PC, then on consoles years after.

Blizzard did share how crazy the Diablo community is when it comes to slaying demons as the company reports that in just four days, the game has already been played for 93 million hours. These are hours played just for those in early access. The top players in the genre also achieved one of the biggest milestones in the game as there is already a player that reached the max level of 100, and he did it in hardcore mode where a single death erases your character. 

The action RPG is doing well right off the bat in reception as well as critics mostly gave the game a positive review as it’s currently sitting with a Metacritic score of 87. 

When it comes to servers, Blizzard indeed seemed ready this time as Diablo IV handled the influx of players coming in pretty well. Players that rushed in to play the game during the early access and during the official launch didn’t result in a major hiccup for the online-only game as it didn’t receive major server issues similar to what Diablo 3 had at launch, where the game was unplayable at launch for the majority of the community. The only major hiccup the Blizzard team had to face on day one is the licensing issue on consoles, preventing players from playing the game on the first hours of early access. PC players were largely not at all affected at launch as servers were stable with barely any downtime, even during the game’s official launch. 

I too was affected by the licensing issue on the first day of early access, but it only occurred in the early morning as it was fine in the afternoon when I tried again.

Diablo IV is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.

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