Diablo 4 stats plummet as Baldur’s Gate 3 soars
It seems there's only enough room for two fantasy RPGs in 2023, as the release of Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 has pushed Blizzard's Diablo 4 out of the market. To quote American Horror Story, "When a new Supreme rises, the old one fades away."
Diablo 4 had a strong start when it launched on June 5, with the latest entry in the long-running dungeon-crawler series grabbing our attention. Still, the launch of Season 1's forced character reset, continued glitches, and Baldur's Gate 3 getting us hot under the collar has nudged Lilith into purgatory.
Baldur's Gate 3 is obliterating Diablo 4 on Twitch
Click to enlargeA quick look at TwitchTracker shows some convenient crossover that the rise of Baldur's Gate 3 coincides with the demise of Diablo 4. In the past seven days, Diablo 4 has had 9,692 viewers. Baldur's Gate 3 has had a whopping 80,822. This puts Baldur's Gate 3 at fifth in the charts, while Diablo 4 is 35th.
There have been 31 million hours of Baldur's Gate 3 watched so far in August, whereas Diablo 4 has had 3.56. It's not that Diablo 4 has died a death, but it's a natural dropoff. Still, Diablo 4 has boasted a peak of 941,488 viewers compared to Baldur's Gate 3's 479,179.
This comes after analytics service SullyGnome.com reported Diablo 4 has gone from nearly one million daily viewers to around 13,000 a matter of weeks after its Season 1 release. As Diablo 4 is a live-service game, it's not a good sign that these numbers are tumbling.
Diablo 4 vs Baldur's Gate 3
Click to enlargeIt's unfair to compare Diablo 4 and Baldur's Gate 3 to each other, but it seems the former is falling victim to the latter's success. Baldur's Gate 3 is also available on Steam, where it's also been seen taking over the platform and earning rave reviews.
Baldur's Gate 3 landed just shy of breaking Hogwarts Legacy's concurrent player record of 879,308 on Steam. It's not exact, but Metacritic lists Diablo 4 at 86 on PC and Baldur's Gate 3 at a lauded 97. Both have their bonuses, with Diablo 4 largely winning RPG elements and Baldur's Gate 3 for the story.
In an unlikely turn of events, some are tipping Baldur's Gate 3 as Game of the Year, meaning it's edging ahead of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. With major releases like Spider-Man 2 and Starfield still to come, we'll have to see whether it sticks. Either way, the hellfires of Diablo 4 are burning low.