After a rocky launch with mixed reviews, Diablo 4 seems to be following the same path as Overwatch 2 on Steam as players flock to other titles in droves.
Almost half of user reviews on Steam are negative, which has led to a low rating of 50.62 percent on player tracker SteamDB. Even though the game is on sale for 25 percent off to celebrate its launch, very few people are playing. Currently, there are about 2,500 active players, with a peak concurrent count of 5,500.
Although it hasn’t reached Overwatch 2’s record-low rating of 11.88 percent on Steam, Diablo 4 seems to be well on the path down. And with Overwatch 2 having nearly five times the active player count, Diablo 4’s situation looks pretty grim. Clearly, this isn’t what Activision-Blizzard was hoping for.
The community expected this response, even despite the launch of season two, Season of Blood. They pointed out that most Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 players will have likely already purchased the games on Battle.net, so these reviews and numbers aren’t reflective of the bigger picture. Yet, it’s clear things aren’t looking good—and even the most loyal players agree.
A select group of reviews are blatant review bombs; for example, the two most upvoted reviews don’t even mention anything specific about Diablo 4. Instead, they just bash Activision-Blizzard as a company. Others accuse the Steam release of being a cash grab, claiming the game is too expensive even when on sale.
However, there are many others who highlight real issues with Diablo 4. They talk about content being locked behind battle passes, DLCs, or seasons, and mention problems like microtransactions, bugs, server issues, and not having enough engaging content to do after finishing the campaign.
Only time will tell whether Diablo 4 season two is capable of turning things around. If not, Diablo 4 might become Activision-Blizzard’s lowest-rated game on Steam, even below Overwatch 2. Maybe it should stick to Battle.net.
Published: Oct 18, 2023 09:43 pm