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.

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[Ottoclav]

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

Shoot, They scrapped the Starcraft: Ghost game for GameCube, I know they got overwatch, but they could do a StarCraft Espionage style game or a StarCraft MMO, I think those would be cool too. A StarCraft 3 game would definitely be refreshing,

 

[Bladexdsl]

good people are finally starting to get sick of that overrated WOW!

 

[LightBeam]

I'm weak, I'm still waiting to see what Overwatch 2 will look like
Otherwise I really don't give a fuck anymore. I stopped playing HoTS despite it being a good game. Why would I care if Blizzard doesn't

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Good. WoW has lasted way too long already. Now give us Warcraft 4

 

[drazenm]

Normally I would do a taking bets on timing of Blizzard's death. That is boring though so now I am more curious what Blizzard would have to do to turn it around.

Being the game industry one mega smash could set them on course, and they do have a lot of history to draw from. Do they have enough people remaining, or trained properly by those that did and both little enough and enough oversight to make it happen then being the question.

Im pretty sure they're focusing all their power on making some cash gimmick like Fortnite, PUBG, LOL etc. Everyone's into that last few years, absolutely everyone.

who doesn't like easy money? Why make a good, deep, quality game when most gamers these days are easily satisfied, brainless and almost all turned into casuals by now. Same is with music, tv show, movies. Stupid and lazy is the new high standard quality.

 

[Esdeath]

Sad part is Bobby will get some nice bonus every year until Blizzard is done for and can retire with his billions.
Parasites around him are probably like:
"Write that down, write that down!"

 

[digipimp75]

Oh how the mighty have fallen

 

[ChaosEternal]

What a shame. I love Blizzard; I once wanted to work for them after I went to college. Well, college came and went and I certainly don't want to work for them anymore. It's tragic what has happened to them. I guess it's as Blizzard themselves once said: "No king rules forever, my son."

 

[RedBlueGreen]

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

They're not getting any misfortune. Their revenue is up which is what's important.

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

Yet Diablo Immortal comes out this year and actually looks pretty solid for a mobile game. The bad reaction to it at Blizzcon did absolutely nothing. They didn't say it was going to be the only new Diablo game, or the next major one. People were butthurt because they thought the announcement was gonna be Diablo IV. At least half the people in the audience at that panel are going to play Immortal. It's like people who got mad when Pokémon Unite was announced when they thought they'd hear about the Sinnoh remakes or next generation. They bitched for a week and then forgot.

I know that post is a joke, but there are a lot of people who legitimately think that Diablo Immortal is going to kill Blizzard. Which obviously isn't going to happen, because WOW has had pretty mediocre expansions for years and Blizzard is still around after that. The people who don't like WOW anymore go to ESO or Final Fantasy XIV.

 

[AlexMCS]

Welp, what to say?

Still, I think WoW will keep them afloat for the next decade at least.

At the current pacing, with the "new lore" and current devs, no it won't. It will be dead (well, zombified since die-hard players will stick to it) in 1-3 xpacs at most.

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

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.

Cataclysm came after Wrath. And it was still much better than what they offer now.
Also, the issue is the player loss trend, not the current amount. At this rate, Blizzard will go under.

Oh gee, I wonder why this happened to Blizzard?

Activision + OG team slowly leaving + new "devs" (not the programmers, the designers) being terrible.

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

WoW is a shadow of a once great game. Most players I know stick to it due to the (time) sunk cost on their characters, not because it's great fun like it once was.

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.

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.

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

This person gets it.

good people are finally starting to get sick of that overrated WOW!

Good. WoW has lasted way too long already. Now give us Warcraft 4

WoW was really good for a long time.
It's still better than the competition when it comes to casual PvP, cost and overall latency.

WC4 should have been made at least 10 years ago.

 

[kevin corms]

They haven't released much new stuff in the last 3 years either. Overwatch came out in 2016. If Overwatch 2 and/or Diablo 4 don't do well, then they have a problem.

 

[Osha]

Still 71% not enough.

 

[Taleweaver]

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.

That's indeed very bizarre. Does that mean that fan boys spend a lot more money now?
(i'd crack a joke or two, but I'm honestly confused by this)

Edit: wait... Of course : the major downfall in players is in the first two years. The 'up 7%' is therefore much less good news than otherwise, as percentages tend to give a more skewed view on a situation.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

You know something's wrong when your players are more excited about re-releases of old games than any new games.

Yeah, I admit it : I'd much rather play a lost vikings remake than Diablo 17, world of starcraft, warcraft 0 or whatever they're really planning next.

 

[yoofo]

I fail to see how Overwatch 2 will bring in new players. It looks like shit.

 

[kevin corms]

I fail to see how Overwatch 2 will bring in new players. It looks like shit.

People loved the first one, especially on pc where profit margins are much higher for them. We will see, it was never a game I got into but it had a huge playerbase.

 

[Megadriver94]

This is indeed not a very good sign for Blizzard.
WoW peaked with either Wrath of the Litch King or Cataclysm. With Mists of Pandaria, the playerbase fluctuated somewhat, but it remained stable for the most part, then it started declining big time with whatever expansion came after. Diablo Immortal is little more than a damn hack job to pander to the Mainland Chinese and SouthEast Asian mobile market.

 

[raxadian]

So 29% in three years? If this continues they will lose all players in seven years and change.

 

[ZeroFX]

nice, i hope it goes further,

 

[jumpman17]

They could try releasing a new game instead of relying on World of Warcraft and actively ruining their old games. But what do I know?

 

[Megadriver94]

They're not getting any misfortune. Their revenue is up which is what's important.

Yet Diablo Immortal comes out this year and actually looks pretty solid for a mobile game. The bad reaction to it at Blizzcon did absolutely nothing. They didn't say it was going to be the only new Diablo game, or the next major one. People were butthurt because they thought the announcement was gonna be Diablo IV. At least half the people in the audience at that panel are going to play Immortal. It's like people who got mad when Pokémon Unite was announced when they thought they'd hear about the Sinnoh remakes or next generation. They bitched for a week and then forgot.

I know that post is a joke, but there are a lot of people who legitimately think that Diablo Immortal is going to kill Blizzard. Which obviously isn't going to happen, because WOW has had pretty mediocre expansions for years and Blizzard is still around after that. The people who don't like WOW anymore go to ESO or Final Fantasy XIV.

>The bad reaction at Blizzcon did absolutely nothing
Oh, I don't think so. It was by no means a one shot pass of disappointment. Sure, there are those who got over it and falsely that think that Blizzard still cares about their playerbase by much.
>at least half of the people who got made are going to play Immortal
I personally don't care much for Diablo anyways, but care to cite the source on that claim regarding the people at that panel?
>Diablo immortal won't kill Blizzard
No, it will not kill off Blizzard, but rather it is more of a slow burn and collapse. They care more about getting mobile $$$ from players in Mainland China aka the ""PRC"" and to a similar extent, the people living in South East Asian nations. WoW had pretty mediorce expansions for years indeed. As far as I'm concerned Mists of Pandaria is the last one that turned out better than mediocre. Truly, loads of Blizzard fans and in addition, many game Freak fans these days are majorly afflicted with buyer's remorse along with Stockholm Syndrome. Basically, DON'T QUESTION JUST CONSUME!