Blizzard Launches Diablo 2 Season 14 as Warlock Expansion Logs 93.4 Million Hours
Updated
Updated · Polygon · May 23
Blizzard Launches Diablo 2 Season 14 as Warlock Expansion Logs 93.4 Million Hours
6 articles · Updated · Polygon · May 23
93.4 million hours of play and 1.92 million new Warlocks in the first month gave Blizzard fresh evidence that Diablo 2: Resurrected's surprise Reign of the Warlock expansion resonated with players.
Season 14 launched Thursday alongside a patch that rebalanced the new Warlock class, with Blizzard even restoring one Echoing Strike durability bug because developers said it fit the skill's intended feel.
Matthew Cederquist said the team pitched the expansion partly as a sentiment boost for Blizzard, then built Warlock with help from the Diablo 4 team and shadow-dropped it to maximize surprise.
Blizzard framed the expansion's success around preserving Diablo 2's original rough edges rather than modernizing them, saying the goal was content that felt as if it had been hidden in the 1999 game all along.
Cederquist stopped short of promising more additions, but left open the possibility of expanding Diablo 2's sandbox further after Season 14 feedback.
The Warlock was nerfed, but will Diablo 2's original classes now dominate the new endgame?
With major updates and a new class, is Diablo 2 losing its iconic identity?
The Warlock expansion succeeded. Is the fan-demanded Act 6 next on Blizzard's list?