Diablo 4 has been struggling to retain the player’s attention even ahead of the release of Season Two, and a recent event illustrated the issue when literally nobody showed up to watch it.
On Sept. 9, the developer hosted an in-person competitive event in South Korea, in collaboration with local esports channel TEN. As shown on the livestream, however, people didn’t exactly show up.
The livestream showed two teams who faced off each other on Diablo 4 in front of empty seats. The show was shared on Diablo‘s official YouTube and Twitch channels, but the audience didn’t surpass 300 viewers, according to a Reddit thread‘s author.
“The streamer who attended the live event and got permission to stream was asked to stop streaming after he expressed his surprise over lack of attendance,” added the user, sharing screenshots showing the empty venue.
Players flocked to the comments section to explain this was proof the game is “dying,” after Blizzard Entertainment received backlash for lack of post-launch content on the game.
“It’s a boring game with no items to chase. The loot sucks. No chance in hell I will spend more money” wrote the top-voted comment under the thread. “One part of me is sad, because I love Diablo, but the other part of me also feels great, with this, I hope this can make Blizzard realize the urgency of their game problems,” read another.
Comments under the Korean livestream were equally negative. “It’s not easy to screw up like this,” wrote the top Korean comment under the livestream. The developer regularly hosts such events on its Korean channels, but usually, they don’t feature a live audience. The emptiness of the venue was glaring, as the only attendees we could spot seemingly sat in the staff corner.
Diablo 4 will welcome a batch of fresh content with the release of Season Two, which is planned for Oct. 17. This might be a turning point for the game, as many players place their hopes in what it will bring to improve the game and give engaging content to keep them from leaving for other titles.
