Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the industry has seen a rapid rise as many people have had more time to play games -- due to the lockdown, but not all...
Blizzard is a company that has had no luck during the pandemic, because its games have lost around 12 million active gamers since 2018. According to research from Mejores Apuestas (MA), the decline has actually occurred since 2017.
Between 2017 and 2018, Blizzard's monthly active users (MAU) fell by 11 million, from 46 million to 35 million in Q4 2018, then in Q2 2021, Blizzard's MAU was recorded at 26 million.
The decline in MAU is actually not drastic, but has decreased at a constant rate every period, for the past 3.5 years. But the decline in Blizzard gaming audiences on Twitch is much more severe.
For example, in August 2019, the game Overwatch on Twitch had around 47 million followers, with an audience of 7.6 billion, aka the 7th most popular game. But by August 2021, his follower count had slumped to 12.1 million, and his viewer count had fallen by nearly 75%.
The decline in MAU and viewership on Twitch that Blizzard has experienced is not due to the pandemic, because they have been struggling with various problems that have caused them to be abandoned by gamers.
The latest issue from Blizzard is related to a toxic work environment, which has led to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the work culture issue.
In addition, Blizzard arguably doesn't have a mainstay game after Overwatch which was released in 2016. Likewise, the legendary Diablo game that hasn't been updated since Diablo III in 2012. They have confirmed that they are working on Diablo IV, but the launch date is still unknown.
There is actually Diablo Immortal, which is intended to appeal to mobile gamers. Unfortunately, this game didn't get a good response from consumers, it could even be said that it was rejected by Diablo fans.