Diablo Immortalhas now been available for a week, having fully launched on June 2. The days since have been filled with endless discourse regarding the qualities and faults ofDiablo Immortal, making it easily the most divisive release of 2022. One point that few would disagree with, however, is thatDiablo Immortalwas going to initially be very successful. That’s now proven true, with Blizzard itself confirming thatDiablo Immortalis the “biggest” launch in theDiablofranchise’s history.
Blizzard’s announcement was shared via the officialDiablo ImmortalTwitter account. The message shared declaredDiablo Immortalthe “biggest launch in franchise history” and thanked theheroes of Sanctuary. The attached graphic provided a more specific framing for what the “biggest launch” forDiabloreally meant. It confirms thatDiablo Immortalhas been installed over 10 million times since it was released. This detail, like much regardingDiablo Immortal, is going to prove controversial.
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The issue is thatDiablo Immortalis a free-to-play game. Players across the world could downloadDiablo Immortalwith no upfront cost, regardless of whether they have any intention to actually play or dedicate much if any time to it. Further, previousDiablogames have all launched exclusively on PC.Diablo 3only arrived on PlayStation and Xbox consoles well over a year after its PC launch. Suffice to say, total launch week installations isn’t a particularly fair number to base a comparison on.
Creating a fair comparison doesn’t seem to beBlizzard’s prerogative in this situation, however. The company wants to celebrate the success ofDiablo Immortalwhile also marketing the idea that the game is popular and successful. It also needs to do that without courting further controversy. Total installations would be less likely to provoke a response than total hours played or total spending, needless to say.
Critics ofDiablo Immortalwill also take this as evidence of their point that the free-to-play mobile game is putting players off.Diablo 3, for example, is said to have sold over 30 million copies in total, a number that’s grown due to expanded content and additional platforms. Critics will argue thatDiablo Immortal’s playerbase will only shrink, due to the game’s heavily monetized design.
10 million installs do make clear thatDiablo Immortalis a launch success, of course. It’s not ground-shaking, however. There are nearly 100 past mobile games with over 20 million installs, for example.Diablo Immortalhas a long way to go to break into that list – and a longer way yet to gain the confidence ofDiablofansnow being told thatDiablo Immortalis the franchise’s most successful launch.
Diablo Immortalis available now on PC, iOS, and Android.
