For some time now, Diablo 4 has been available on Steam and has even been free to play until today. However, in recent days, an overwhelming number of positive reviews have come in, which cannot all be attributed to the free play period.
What has happened recently with Diablo 4? Diablo 4 is currently in the second season and the winter event is scheduled for December 5th. Just in time for the sales events around Black Week, you could play the game for free until December 28th.
Due to the free play period, Diablo 4 experienced a significantly increased player count, allowing players to get their first impression without having to pay. However, with the increased player numbers, a wave of reviews came in starting from November 21st, the vast majority of which were positive.
Which reviews are under criticism? On reddit, a whole series of positive one-word reviews have been particularly noted:
It is striking that the reviews share identical content. In addition, all accounts are relatively new and claim similar playtime.
reddit user nodlimax also linked one of the affected accounts, which supposedly had over 2,366 hours of playtime in the past two weeks (Steam). However, since a day only has 24 hours and two weeks only 14 days, the maximum playtime could only be 336 hours – assuming the account user has no human needs like sleep or hunger.
At the time of this news, we could no longer find the reviews shown in the reddit post on Steam ourselves. We assume that Steam has deleted them by now.
What could be behind the reviews? reddit user nodlimax suspects a targeted bot campaign behind the reviews. With this, Diablo 4’s publisher Activision/Blizzard might be trying to boost the game’s popularity during the free weekend.
The colleagues from VG247.com, on the other hand, suspect that this is a targeted test campaign: There are companies that offer influencing Steam reviews as a service. The reviews for Diablo 4 could therefore be intended as a template for potential future customers.
Why have positive reviews shot up even without bots? Currently, users can nominate games for the Steam Awards. Those who do so receive a special Steam badge. This badge can be upgraded by leaving a review for the respective game.
The start of the award nomination phase was on November 21, 2023. This aligns with the rise in review numbers. Furthermore, it should be noted that only people who like Diablo 4 nominate it. Therefore, it can be assumed that a nomination leads to a positive review.
While the reviews discussed on reddit were likely indeed created by bots, the large number of new reviews is primarily due to the Steam Awards and the free weekend.
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