New data shows that Blizzard is suffering a large decline in its playerbase, according to the company's Q1 2021 fiscal report. This follows a negative trend that Activision Blizzard has been facing for the past few years, laying off hundreds of workers, criticisms of CEO Bobby Kotick being "massively" overpaid, the controversy surrounding Diablo Immortal, the departure of longtime veteran Jeff Kaplan, and many other recent stories that have seen their public perception fall, all despite the company doing better than ever, financially. As of the report, dated March 2021, Blizzard saw revenue growth up 7% compared to last year, which, while positive, is an odd statistic, as active users have fallen 29% in the past three years. In just the past quarter alone--just three months--Blizzard lost 2 million "MAU" or monthly average users total. Previously, Blizzard boasted 38 million MAU in Q1 2018, and now that number has dropped to 27 million in Q1 2021. The company remains positive, however, asserting that upcoming titles like Diablo II Remaster, Overwatch 2, Diablo Immortal, and Diablo IV will be major releases to help draw players back in, furthering brand growth.

Source

 

[MeAndHax]

Yeah but like, nothing and I mean NOTHING can beat or even resemble Broodwar in terms of game design and balance.

Sorry to tell, but honestly I enjoyed SCII more than Brood War.

 

[Viri]

Starcraft III? Come on; I can’t be the only one who loves the Starcraft franchise

I loved StarCraft 1, which is why I was eternally butt hurt about StarCraft 2's campaign storyline. Fuck Blizzard and their retcons.

 

[Cha0tic]

a lot of unhappy people here lmfao

love blizzard, wow and ow are my favorite games. Been playing wow for over 13 years

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

They should make more single player games.

 

[DuoForce]

Blizzard, you did this to yourself

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Maybe if Overwatch were fun they'd have mire players. Pretty sure most people really just liked the characters and lore, or the rule 34 potential.

Come back to me once Riot starts to go to shit.

Well Valorant has lost a ton of players since launch so you might not need to wait long. Just wait for them to screw up League and they're done.

Tbh any attempts to directly connect Blizzard's actions with player decline is a complete fallacy.

Diablo 3 - 2012
Heroes of the Storm (was never popular to begin with) - 2015
Hearthstone - 2014
Overwatch - 2016 (man that feels so much older)

World of Warcraft has been on a steady decline since whatever the hell came after WOTLK, I don't even remember. Pandas?

They have very little driving new players into their games, so they're just slowly bleeding the playerbases they do have. It has nothing to do with Blizzard itself or really even the quality of the games. Overwatch is great but there's only so many thousands of matches a person can handle and there's TONS of competition these days. Diablo 3 hasn't had new content since 2014 (aside from the overpriced Necromancer in 2017). All of their games are old or highly contested genres.

Given they're about to release a barrage of new games, and they boast a "measly" 27 million userbase still, I think they'll be just fine. You'd have to be an idiot to think Blizzard will die. Most devs would shit their pants and then eat them to get 27 million players in their games.

Wait, you mean Diablo Immortal being announced a couple years ago didn't kill Blizzard? People don't just forget about stuff they were about after a short while, right? That would just be crazy.

Oh yeah, and it comes out this year. Blizzactivision doesn't care that a few nerds are butt hurt because they don't want a mobile spin off. They're out to make money and know that those same angry nerds are either going to play that game, or just play Diablo IV when it comes out.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Come back to me once Riot starts to go to shit.

Sadly toxic 10-year olds(and koreans who are really, really, good at the game for some reason) will never go away

 

[HideoKojima]

This is similar to market share, when competition do better you lose it.

 

[SONGBIRD]

When I was young, most people enjoyed Blizzard's games. I miss that time.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

When I was young, most people enjoyed Blizzard's games. I miss that time.

You rn:

 

[DonCaballero]

One man destroyed one of the biggest gaming companies of all time, follow your dreams people!

 

[p1ngpong]

"HAHAHA Blizard going out of business good!!! HAHAHAHA"

If you actually bother to read the article their revenue has gone up 7%.

This is probably what they want, al the scrubs who just get a base game and play it without spending more are leaving, while all the people who pour money into crap are still around and buying lootboxes and timecards and other junk. Freemium players are just scum leeches that make Bobby cry.

 

[VartioArtel]

A friend and I spoke recently about this. He notice a funny point:

3 years.

2018.

"Do you not have phones" incident occurred in 2018.

I suppose the statement now is "Do you not have customers?"

 

[ov3rkill]

What do they expect especially with the way they treated their IP and fans?

 

[DarkKaine]

Don't you guys have players?
Honestly, they deserve all the misfortune they're getting right now.

 

[Deleted User]

... If any Company could benefit from a sister Media push, Blizzard should be one of them.

I honestly do not doubt the revenue potential of a Diablo Live Action Movie and subsequent Netflix TV Series for the next decade.
Less overhead than their CG-heavy other Franchises with just enough foundation to do great in the hands of the capable.

If they can get somebody on-the-rise on Protagonist like Indonesian Joe Taslim, after his Sub-Zero role, and someone well-loved as Antagonist like Mark Hamill, of Joker fame, they could very well have a Cult Classic for the 2020s.

 

[seseiSeki]

Oh hey, I'm part of this. When Destiny 2 moved over to steam, I uninstalled Battle.net, since there was nothing on there, that I was playing.

 

[Blaze163]

You mean their brilliant business strategy of releasing subpar games nobody wanted full of loot boxes and corporate bullshit isn't working as well as they'd hoped? Surely not. I mean the executives were up all night rubbing themselves raw at the prospect of infinite money. We can't let them down, right? These poor multi-millionaires need all our money to follow their dreams, we should all support them in these trying times.

 

[Robika]

I am a huge Blizz fan, but ever since Mike Morhime left and all the OG developers left, the company has been ran like crap. Quality in the games has dropped.

Wow was fun for the last time in Legion, ever since then it has become a stupid grindfest without any thought put into how the player will feel.

Overwatch has been abandoned for 2 whole years, no new heroes no new map, and OW2 is not even close to launch. Diablo 3 was fun like for 4 months and then you just get bored of the grind. Blizzard failed when it started focusing on the Asian market. All their game are a grindfest.

I loved the grind they had in Burning Crusade or Lich King, because it earned you some really cool cosmetics and mounts, and not many people had those but now everyone has everything. Also the community is so bored that they made raid progression into a crypto currency.

Overwatch was fun when they kept it fresh adding new events and more content like new heroes and maps. Waiting for a sequel without anything to do in the live game is not a great strategy, you just end up losing a lot of your player base.

Let's not talk about what they did to Warcraft 3...R.I.P.

Sad to see one of the best developers in history falling so low.

 

[Graxer]

Not long until the Blizzard team becomes a Call of Duty support studio like Toys for Bob I guess...