Diablo 4 has reportedly earned Blizzard around $150 million from in-game microtransactions since it released in June 2023.
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The numbers help us contextualise not only Diablo 4’s success – Blizzard itself confirmed Diablo 4 had generated $666m in just five days – but also the commercial impact of making the game available for no additional cost to Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
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Back in July, of course, Microsoft announced sweeping changes to Xbox Game Pass that would see day-one releases being removed as a benefit to subscribers of the service’s revised basic tier, including Diablo 4.
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That’s according to senior product manager, Harrison Froeschke, who stated in a since-nuked LinkedIn account that they had led the “monetisation strategy of the store cosmetics, pricing, bundle offers, personalised discounts, and roadmap planning which have driven over $150m [microtransaction] lifetime revenue”.