Diablo 4 sets a record on Steam with Season 4, still has as many players 3 weeks later, receives praise

Season 4 of Diablo 4 seems to be exciting many players. On Steam, the ARPG has maintained its numbers for the last three weeks and even recorded an increase. The community is now discussing possible reasons for this.

About three weeks ago, Season 4 started in Diablo 4 and is thrilling many players with new features. The entire loot system has been revamped, there are new crafting systems, and new endgame content. With one change, Blizzard also solved an annoying problem and players are calling it a “game-changer”.

The new season apparently attracts many (new) players. On Steam, Diablo 4 has not only maintained its player count since May 14 – there was even an increase. The community is currently discussing on Reddit what could be the reason for this.

Diablo 4: The developers explain the new item system and the new endgame dungeon

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What do the numbers on Steam look like? At the season start on May 14, Diablo 4 had almost 15,000 players on Steam (source: steamdb). On May 15, the number rose to over 24,000. By May 19, there were even over 29,000 players, a record for the game on Steam.

What’s particularly interesting is that the numbers have scarcely dropped since release. After a slight dip, on June 5, it stands again at nearly 30,000 players, as you can see from the graph:

In comparison, the biggest competitors on Steam, Path of Exile and Last Epoch, are struggling with significantly greater losses:

Path of Exile attracted more than 187,000 players with the Necropolis League, which started on March 29. By April 19, three weeks later, there were only about 62,000 left. About two-thirds of the players have left (via steamcharts).
Last Epoch even had 258,000 players and strong ratings at launch on Steam. After three weeks, on March 13, there were only 103,000 players left – less than half. Now the game even only reaches 8,600 players at peak times (via steamcharts).

It should be noted that Diablo 4 only launched on Steam long after its release. The main platforms are Battle.net for PC and consoles, namely PS4, PS5, and Xbox. The vast majority of players are engaged here.

Although there are no official figures, the tracking website Activeplayer.io reports over one million daily peak players and over four million active users per month.

New content, good grind, and 50% discount

How does the community explain this? On Reddit, the user “Deidarac5” posted a similar graph on June 3 showing the development of player numbers. He notes that Diablo 4 still reaches “the same numbers” three weeks into Season 4. The post has over 1,300 upvotes and more than 600 comments.

In the comments, the community discusses possible reasons for the constant player numbers, which apparently even experienced an increase:

The top comment with over 770 upvotes comes from “offredditappisbad”. He writes on Reddit: “It has a good grind, which speaks for that. I reached level 100 and immediately started a new character.”
“ehxy” writes on Reddit: “It’s really fun to play to 100 now. I didn’t spend 80% of my time looking for loot.”
“xsvennnn” thinks on Reddit: “They’re making steps in the right direction. However, they should continue to provide good updates if they want a chance not to be swept under the rug when Path of Exile 2 comes out.”
“Dr_Zevil665” writes on Reddit: “The game is definitely fun now. There’s so much more to do, and the endgame loop is so much more satisfying than ever. This is a great foundation. I hope Blizz keeps this up in the future.”
Another user notes on Reddit: “The big problem that I see with this data is that the number of players on Steam is so low that it can easily be influenced by new sales. Do you see the big increase at the end? Those are new players coming in because of the big sale. […] .”

The new features, the revamped endgame, and also the current sale seem to be reasons for the currently stable player base, but also for the increase in numbers on Steam.