Diablo Immortal, a free-to-play mobile game in the Diablo franchise, reportedly makes $1 million a day from its in-game loot boxes and microtransactions.
Diablo Immortal has faced criticism from fans for its ‘predatory’ microtransactions causing the game to be banned in countries including Belgium and the Netherlands. Many have called the game pay-to-win, with some fans calculating that it would cost approximately an eye-watering $540,000 to fully upgrade your character.
As reported by VGC, data collected by AppMagic suggests that publisher Activision Blizzard collects an average of $1 million per day via the game, with an all-time high of $2.4 million achieved in just one day around a week after launch. While this is a significant amount, it is eclipsed by games such as Fortnite which reportedly make around $70 million each week.
Activision Blizzard has released figures showing a drastic decline in profits and players over the last two years. Analysts suggest this is due to lawsuits levied against the company which detail numerous allegations of systematic abuse seen as part of the company culture. The company instead claims the drop in players is due to recent releases in the Call of Duty franchise not meeting its standards of quality, and delays in Blizzard’s release schedule.
Blizzard had promised games in the Diablo and Overwatch series’ which failed to meet predicted release deadlines. The publisher chose to fold Vicarious Visions, developer of Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, into Blizzard in order to help with work on Diablo Immortal. It has also purchased another studio, Proletariat, so that its 100 employees can help release World of Warcraft’s promised Dragonflight expansion on time.
Diablo Immortal differs from other games including microtransactions as many see the loot boxes and spending as required to proceed. In order to upgrade your character, you are required to own five-star legendary gems. While these are freely available in loot boxes, these items only drop once per month during gameplay. Creating this barrier to progression is what has encouraged players to purchase these items and has created profits for the company.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.