The monthly active users, the player numbers at Blizzard have sharply declined in recent months. Compared to the figure three years ago, Blizzard’s games (WoW, Overwatch, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm) had a total of 11 million fewer users in Q1 2021.
What are these numbers? Blizzard does not disclose exact player numbers for individual games, only the number “MAU”: This stands for “monthly active users”. Anyone who logs into a Blizzard game at least once a month, no matter how briefly, counts as a “MAU”.
Blizzard publishes the MAU figures quarterly in its financial report, which represents the total number of users for the respective 3 months divided by 3. Yesterday was time again: Activision Blizzard’s chat with investors.
11 million players lost in 3 years
This is how the numbers have developed: The website Massivelyop has compiled the quarterly numbers from the last 3 years and noted what notable events occurred during the quarter at Blizzard (via massivelyop):
- 38M in Q1 2018
- 37M in Q2 2018
- 37M in Q3 2018 (Release of the WoW expansion Battle for Azeroth)
- 35M in Q4 2018
- 32M in Q1 2019
- 32M in Q2 2019
- 33M in Q3 2019 (Release of WoW Classic)
- 32M in Q4 2019 (The Blitzchung affair)
- 32M in Q1 2020 (COVID-19)
- 32M in Q2 2020 (COVID-19)
- 30M in Q3 2020 (COVID-19)
- 29M in Q4 2020 (COVID-19, Release of WoW Shadowlands)
- 27M in Q1 2021 (this quarter)
It can be seen that the number of users has been steadily declining or stagnating since 2018, only WoW Classic was able to temporarily halt the trend. Apparently, the outbreak of Covid-19 and the consequences of the lockdown also buffered the ongoing decline in players: People spent more time at home.
But the new WoW expansion Shadowlands was not enough to make up for the loss.
“Have they ever tried to release good games?”
This is how it is being discussed: On reddit, the player decline at Blizzard is a big topic (via reddit). Some are commenting: “Have they tried to release a good game?”
Because indeed, nothing new has been released at Blizzard in recent years, except for a bad remake of Warcraft 3: Reforged and WoW Classic. All other projects have been canceled (StarCraft action game, the MMORPG Titan) or are still in development like Overwatch 2, Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4.
Another user counters the thesis that the player decline is solely due to the lack of new games from Blizzard. Also LoL, Minecraft and CS:GO are already old, but still have immense player bases. However, the quality at Blizzard has significantly decreased, even for existing games:
- Warcraft 3 was a “slap in the face of the fans”
- In WoW, players are constantly frustrated by the random systems, poor balance, and time-gates
- Heroes of the Storm has practically failed
- Overwatch 2 is stuck in development hell, especially now that Jeff Kaplan is gone
The user stated that he only has hope for Diablo 4.
The relevance of Overwatch and Hearthstone is dwindling – Diablo 3 is starving
This is what it’s about: Blizzard is indeed running out of steam in recent years, at least in every game that is not WoW. Because WoW Classic was an enormous success for the company, although fans had to demand it. By itself Blizzard didn’t really want to develop an “old version” of WoW.
- The great fortune for Blizzard before 2018 was the hero shooter Overwatch: From 2016 to 2018, it was a constant runner, gaining momentum through events, new heroes, and an active fandom. But Fortnite has siphoned off the player base. When Blizzard should have been providing new content, they apparently were developing Overwatch 2 or struggling with e-sports.
- The “small” card game Hearthstone, initially started as a side project, was for Blizzard a further stroke of luck for a long time. However, Hearthstone has enormously lost relevance: Hearthstone was still number 6 on Twitch in 2018 based on average viewer numbers with 40,827. At the moment it stands at 19th place with 28,286 viewers.
- An attempt to revive Heroes of the Storm failed, and the “Don’t call it a MOBA” MOBA is now even more irrelevant than before.
- Diablo 3 is very popular, and there is a huge demand for “games like Diablo“, but Blizzard has been almost ignoring it for years.
The problems Blizzard faces in releasing new games might also be linked to the fact that some of the leading figures and icons from Blizzard have left over the years. They allegedly faced issues with the new culture under Activision, according to insider reports.
In any case, Blizzard lacks new games: Much hope indeed rests on Diablo 4.
Although it must be said that Activision Blizzard is doing financially great. Compared to the previous year, they increased their total revenue in Q1 by 500 million US dollars. The cash cows are Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush.
Insider report casts a grim light on what’s going on at Blizzard
