2024 marks the first full year of Activision Blizzard under Microsoft, following the most expensive acquisition in gaming history. Today, Blizzard President Johanna Faries shared a year-end statement reflecting on the company's progress.
Before you get too excited, there are no juicy financials here like the $1 billion and counting made in microtransactions by Diablo 4, this recap reads more like a gaming-themed Spotify Wrapped. Still, it includes some fun analogies, and having attended Gamescom 2024, I can say Xbox’s booth was its biggest yet, thanks largely to Blizzard’s massive presence.
8.34 billion game hours across Blizzard games in 2024
Yep for 2024 year to date across all games & platforms under Blizzard, thats the Diablo, Warcraft and Overwatch franchises, we collectively played 8.34 billion in games hours.
Pretty sure a good chunk of that was my time in Diablo 4, which topped my list for my Xbox Year in Review.
There's a lot of waffling going on through Battle.net
In 2024, more than 379 million messages were sent through Battle.net. "If you spent 5 seconds reading each message, it would take 60 years of non-stop reading to finish them all." That's a lot of "tp to me" and "I paid $90 for this mount bro don't tell my wife." I'm sure.
2025 will probably be even busier for Battle.net as Microsoft add some of it's own studios titles to the launcher, with the surprise announcement recently of Avowed launching day one on Battle.net.
Warcraft Wow and Rumble statistics
World of Warcraft saw many players return for its War Within expansion this year, which isn't great news for the Spiders/Nerubians as you killed 4.5 billion of them. This is the first in a multi-expansion story arc for the game, the Worldsoul Saga, which will unfold over another two expansions.
In Warcraft Rumble, over 400 million Cenarion family minis were played, an earnable reward in Season 7.
Hearthstone and Diablo
Hearthstone lives on, with players flexing their Murloc minions aplomb. Diablo 4 saw us killing over 1.7 trillion demons, an all-time high — what they haven't told us is if this is 50% Tormented Duriel runs with us desperately trying to earn a Mythic Unique. Blizzard launched Vessel of Hatred, the first of its expansions (plural as stated by Rod Ferguson), and it will be interesting to see how 2025 unfolds with competition from the likes of Path of Exile 2.
Diablo Immortal and Overwatch stats
480 million players died in Diablo Immortal, which is ironic, not so immortal now, are we? Then Overwatch boasts over 203 years played in-game hours combined over the new Clash maps. The traditional charity skin for Mercy was also a hit, with Pink Mercy campaigns from this year and 2018 now accounting for a total $25 million donation to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).
"In our first full year as a part of Xbox, we've been thrilled to embrace our new community and to broaden access to Blizzard games."
Johanna Faries joined Blizzard Entertainment in January of this year. Coming from management of the Call of Duty franchise under Activision Blizzard, this end-of-year note represents her first year at the helm of Blizzard.
"As I approach my first full year with Blizzard, I am filled with deep gratitude and inspiration. The powerful work that our teams have produced—both for our player communities around the world and for each other—is nothing short of amazing. It remains a daily honor to work alongside such a talented and dedicated group of people, who are the guiding force behind what makes Blizzard such a special place. I am incredibly grateful for their camaraderie and collaboration, feedback and guidance, resilience and creativity, and their commitment to excellence each and every day."
You can check out the full blog post here, but Faries finishes her statement by acknowledging this first milestone for Blizzard as part of Xbox. "Beyond the tremendous achievements and milestone markers within our games and teams, we've also taken part in some pretty big developments. In our first full year as part of Xbox, we've been thrilled to embrace our new community and to broaden access to Blizzard games."
Faries hints at more "2025 is poised to be another big year of new and exciting experiences to come."
As for me? I'm personally hoping that means another Diablo 4 expansion and more Blizzard games on Xbox Game Pass!
