The image above is taken from Google Trends. On June 11, Diablo 4 had a score of 100. On September 1, it had a score of 5.
According to Google Trends, “Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.”
So, in terms of Google’s “popularity” graph (if I would even call it that), Diablo 4 has experienced a 20-fold drop in popularity from early June to early September.
I am hoping that QoL changes, new content, activities, and patches will reverse this trend. I’m sad to see my once favorite game franchise in this state.
Yep. That sort of drop is very common in the industry. Games get high peak at release then trail down to their core players. That chart will rise a little when the new season or expansion drops, but never back to where it was at release. Same for every game out there. WOW is the only game I know of that actually got higher after release. We call that an outlier.
Finding a replacement for such a high-pressure role is indeed a challenge. The gaming community would need someone with the transformative leadership qualities that Lee Iacocca brought to Chrysler. The decision to hold the main person accountable is primarily to boost the confidence of Diablo 4 players. And it’s not without reason; his departure might not have a massive impact on the game. Under his leadership, every patch seemed to introduce critical bugs that jeopardized entire seasons. How can one remain hopeful for subsequent seasons in such a scenario? Feedback from his former colleagues suggests that he might genuinely need to step down. He appears to lack a genuine passion for the game, focusing more on top-tier management without understanding how to engage with the community effectively.
No, not really. Most products have a similar interest then drop off to base after release.
You can expect a high search amount when something is being hyped/marketed before release then for it to taper off to a low level after that. Bumps for expansions, Seasons, and major patches. Other than that, it will settle into a base level of searches. Most regular players have their guide/fav sites bookmarked and are not using google to search for anything.
This ^^
Keep in mind the data is for SEARCHES only. It does not indicate more beyond that. It does not measure website traffic at bookmarked sites for example.
tbh half of the searches over the past month have probably been me hate-searching for player counts and bad reviews because watching this game die is about the only satisfaction i’ve got from it since i bought it.
As someone that compares distributions for a living, the Elden Ring and D4 interest distributions are very different. The biggest difference is the deviation from max. Elden Ring is hovering at 25% of max while D4 is down in the single digits. Second, the length of time of the drop is very different, which you pointed out. It took Elden Ring ~6.5 months to hit its minimal value while Diablo 4 did it in a little under 3 months. Diablo 4 took merely 1 month to hit the ~25% of max mark while Elden Ring took 5 months to do so. In short, Elden Ring is sustaining much higher interest over a far longer period of time than D4 does.
it’s a normal trend.
look at the newest zelda now compared to at release / prior to release
obviously he went down by a TON.
when people played the game they won’t be searching about it anymore.
it’s the case for everything in life be it games , movies or even events.
the only instance where diablo 4 will get a jump in google popularity will be near the next expansion release. (and then will get down again)
until then : no.
but it’s far from unique to diablo.
do that for any game, it’ll be the same.
Y’all really need to learn that probably close to 99% of gamers do no play a game endlessly. Once they beat it, they move onto the next one, and they only return for huge updates or expansions. If even. All of this Twitch and declining interest talk is expected. If you don’t think so, you don’t understand casual gamers. Most video gamers move onto the next release.
D4’s declining interest is compounded by the fact that the game was made for casual gamers on consoles with the intention players would only come back here and there for the occasional season.
I know but im talking about the overall graph, not just the last 12 months. Elden Ring hasn’t dropped below 25 in the last 12 months because it’s peak was more than a year ago. Switch the scale to all time or greater than 1 year and you’ll see what i mean.
It’s owned by a multi billion dollar corporation with deep pockets and is an established franchise…
I mean if by “die” you mean won’t be as popular with gamers anymore, sure, it’s already dead? It’s not going to die, die, in the dead way though for a long time.
