At launch, Diablo IV got the kind of reviews Blizzard hadn't seen in a decade. Gorgeous, well-paced, mechanically sharp, the campaign called the studio's best in years. Almost every outlet hedged on the endgame and said explicitly they couldn't evaluate it before publication. The hedging turned out to matter.
Reviews on the players' side are not really about the game anymore. They're about the monetization. Skill tree content getting locked behind expansions. Battle passes stacked on full-priced DLC stacked on more full-priced DLC. The praise that does come through is for the campaign and the recent Lord of Hatred expansion, usually with an asterisk about price. Even the people enjoying it sound exhausted.
Critics graded Diablo IV at launch, when it was a really good ARPG you bought once. Players are grading a different game now — one where the actual product is the long-term contract with Blizzard, and the asking price keeps going up. Both reads are accurate. The 18-point gap is just the difference between reviewing a game and living with it.
Data last updated: May 29, 2026