Blizzard has commented on Diablo 3‘s massive popularity, almost 14 years after its initial release. Despite there being several new games in the franchise released after Diablo 3, the 2012 ARPG continues to attract millions of players and still receives ongoing support from Blizzard. Executive producer of the Diablo Legacy team, Matthew Cederquist, has revealed why.
It’s easy to forget after all this time, but Diablo 3 was massively controversial at the time of release, thanks to its always-online DRM and changes made to the series’ typical formula. Nowadays, it is widely regarded as one of the best Diablo games, and 2014’s Reaper of Souls expansion is often seen as its turning point. It helped that there were 11 years between the release of Diablo 3 and 4, as it allowed Blizzard to continue improving the game over a long period.
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Diablo 3 Still Attracts “Millions” of Players, According to Dev
Speaking to Eurogamer, Diablo Legacy executive producer Matthew Cederquist spoke on why Diablo 3‘s player count remains extremely high despite the game launching so long ago. “Each game has its own core players,” Cederquist explained. “There’s actually still millions of people that still play Diablo 3. Even when Diablo 4 came out, some players were cannibalized and brought over to D4, but there’s still a massive player base for Diablo 3. Every single ladder season that comes out, you will see people transition from D4 back to D3 and play for that opening weekend, or that week or so, and they’ll transition right back to D4. And vice versa D2.” Cederquist contrasted how gamers continue to play Diablo 3 with another Blizzard title, World of Warcraft. “That’s the cool thing about our community. It’s less like World of Warcraft: Classic, where that’s your home, you don’t move; that’s mine, I don’t go to retail. There’s so much inter-cannibalization.”
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Lead designer of the Diablo Legacy team, Tim Vasconcellos, added his own take on the situation. “The player habits are just different in a long-form progression game… There’s not the same class-role dynamic saying hey we need a healer, we need a tank and then DPS. Every class is DPS. Furthermore, the social expectation isn’t that we’re going to commit to having to play together to progress content.”
“Is it more efficient? Yes. Is it more enjoyable? We think so. You can continue on your own if you want to and the social pressure doesn’t exist there, and so people are easily able to flow between one game to the next. That’s more feasible in today’s modern age where we have so many demands on our time, and the playerbase has also aged and they have more responsibilities to see to. I’m a Diablo dad myself. That’s just the reality; I think Diablo suits those players.”
Even when Diablo 4 came out, some players were cannibalized and brought over to D4, but there’s still a massive player base for Diablo 3.
Cederquist jumped back into the chat, revealing that seasonal content is key to older Diablo games remaining successful, including Diablo 3. “Our games fluctuate wildly, and it’s because you have those seasonal contents,” Cederquist said. “Everyone comes back for a ladder race, and actually the way we produce them is we separate them for that to happen, so we’re never going to have a D3 ladder stepping over a D2 ladder stepping over a D4 ladder. We want players to be able to say, Okay yeah, let me jump into this flavour of Diablo today, maybe this flavour of Diablo two weeks from now and so on.” So it’s all about Blizzard finding the balance, with every Diablo game having something for every player to enjoy at different times. Given the continued success, it’s fair to say Blizzard is doing a solid job.
Diablo 3 is currently in the middle of Season 37: The Forbidden Archives, which began in December 2025. Blizzard has not yet revealed the start date or content of Diablo 3 Season 38, but it’s awesome that the game continues to receive new updates after all this time. Elsewhere, the developer is focused on releasing Diablo 4‘s Lord of Hatred expansion, which launches on April 28, 2026, bringing two new classes to the latest game in the series.
- Released
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September 3, 2013
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
Source: Eurogamer
