Diablo 4 passes $1 billion in lifetime revenue, $150 million from microtransactions

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According to information on Harrison Froeschke's LinkedIn profile, a Senior Product Manager at Blizzard, Diablo IV's lifetime revenue has surpassed $1 billion, which includes over $150 of microtransaction revenue. The profile and information have since been removed or made private, but not before publication Gamepressure spotted it and posted a screenshot.

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Diablo 4's paid skins and cosmetics look impressive.

The only official information surrounding Diablo 4's revenue arrived after the game's launch in June 2023, when Blizzard announced it had generated $666 million in sales in a week. Making it the studio's fastest-selling game ever. The LinkedIn post mentioned leading the monetization strategy of the "store cosmetics, pricing, bundle offers, and personalized discounts," which drove the $150 million in microtransaction revenue.

However, this only represents 15% of Diablo 4's total revenue. As a full-priced game in one of the most popular action RPG franchises, most of the money has come from players buying the game.

Having skins, cosmetics, and Premium Battle Pass rewards is a first for the franchise, and Diablo 4 has been under fire a few times for charging more than the game's total price for a fancy skin and some in-game currency. That said, the game's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, which introduces the new Spiritborn class, is a traditional paid DLC, where a single upfront cost delivers a new campaign, class, and other features, just like Diablo 3's Reaper of Souls and Diablo 2's Lord of Destruction expansions.

Vessel of Hatred is set to debut next month, alongside Season 6, where Blizzard will also introduce new cosmetics and other 'microtransactions.' Naturally, with over $1 billion in revenue, even though microtransactions haven't made up the bulk of what Diablo 4 has generated, they present an easy way for a studio like Blizzard to make money, as skins require far less development work than new mechanics, environments, items, and gameplay.

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