Diablo 4 is definitely one of the most anticipated games of the season. During its first beta access—with yet another yet to come—Diablo 4 was able to draw in massive participation numbers and it has set itself as much as one of the greatest launches in recent memory. While expectations for Diablo 4's release happen to be sky-high, its launch might be primed to exceed the loftiest expectations.

Over yesteryear year, there's been no shortage of hugely successful launches. The biggest winner from this past year was Elden Ring which shattered FromSoftware's previous sales records and cemented itself among the best-selling RPGs ever. Almost exactly annually later, Hogwarts Legacy debuted for an equally strong launch, posing an instantaneous challenge to the records set by Elden Ring and also surpassing them in some instances. Now, just a few months later, Diablo 4 has got the chance to eclipse records set by either of these massive titles.

All Signs Point to an Absolutely Massive Diablo 4 Launch

Blizzard remained relatively tight-lipped on exact participation figures throughout the first beta period but confirmed that Diablo 4's beta was the biggest in franchise history. It was confirmed, however, that almost three million players were able to snag the beta reward—one which was offered to players that got a minimum of one character to level 20. Blizzard also confirmed that there would be a collective play duration of almost 62 million hours.

If those numbers weren't convincing enough, Diablo 4 also dominated Twitch during its beta window. In just six days, Diablo 4 was able to crack into the top ten most-watched titles for that month of March, sitting up there with perennial favorites like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and so on. None of those figures are particularly surprising for any title like Diablo 4, however, they all paint exactly the same picture: Diablo 4 is carrying an unprecedented quantity of hype into its release.

The figure that Diablo 4 needs to top to be able to beat out Hogwarts Legacy and Elden Ring is about 12 million within the first two weeks. It's an undeniably tall order, but between your beta figures for Diablo 4 and also the overwhelmingly positive reception towards the title to date, Diablo 4 might be able to do it.

Factors Working Against Diablo 4's Launch

Even though fans really are a decade taken off Diablo 3's launch, the sour taste from the disastrous debut still lingers for a lot. In order to regain hesitant would-be customers, Diablo 4 needs to come out exceptionally strong. It cannot afford a rocky start like Diablo 3 whether it hopes to dethrone heavyweights like Hogwarts Legacy. Even throughout the relatively successful beta period, many fans were delayed by lag spikes and connection issues, and Blizzard desperately needs to possess those issues determined by June.

Diablo 4 also offers fierce competition around its release date. There are still 8 weeks to go, and June 2023 has already been jampacked with big-name releases. With Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16, and Street Fighter 6 all releasing within weeks of 1 another, fans are going to possess to make some seriously tough decisions. In an ideal scenario, all of these titles would set up big numbers independent of 1 another, but actually, they're likely to sap each other's sales figures.

There's no question that Diablo 4 is going to possess a big launch regardless of those factors, however, it may not topple the huge sales of Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy with your stiff competition. Still, it's difficult to ignore the truth that it perfectly could.

Diablo 4 launches June 6 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.