Between the surprisingly exceptional reception to Diablo IV's latest season, Season of Blood, and the recent start of the Mother's Blessing Week, it's been a particularly fruitful month for the gothic fantasy dungeon crawler. This comes fresh off Blizzard Entertainment's massive announcement at BlizzCon 2023: the game's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred. As a result of these hype-inducing triumphs and several other noteworthy factors, the game's player count on Steam has now climbed up to an all-time high since it was added to the platform earlier this year.
As of the time of writing, Diablo IV's SteamDB data indicates that its average player count right now hovers somewhere around the low 20,000s, peaking at 23,037. Both of these stats are the highest they've ever been in its history on Steam. And, while a great deal of players enjoy Diablo IV on other platforms, especially Battle.net - asking for players to pay for two copies to play Diablo IV on both Battle.net and Steam doesn't help either - the growing number of Steam players is still worth accounting for. This suggests that there's been a notable increase in player interest, which, to be honest, isn't surprising at all.
Firstly, after the troublesome Season 1 launch of Diablo IV, Blizzard is starting to turn things around. Season of Blood is a marked improvement over its predecessor, with a boatload of new content, balance changes, and a genuine attempt to make gameplay better. It's a step in the right direction and has made plenty of players want to join or come back. Better yet, the improvements have made it so that more are looking forward to maxing out their characters before the season ends for the first time than before, especially with the addition of the Abattoir of Zir. This speaks volumes to the impact Season of Blood has made on Diablo IV.