Blizzard’s player base has fallen 29% over the last 3 years

The number of players accessing Blizzard games has declined by approximately 29% over the past three years, the company’s latest data has shown.

Activision Blizzard confirmed on Tuesday that Blizzard had 27 million monthly active users in the first quarter of 2021.

As shown by Massively Overpowered, the figure is down from 38 million during the first quarter of 2018.

Blizzard hasn’t released a full game in five years, although the company has doubled down on development over the past few years, with more titles said to be in the works than at any point in its 30-year history.

However, it’s also seen key departures including two of its three co-founders and more recently, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan confirmed he is leaving the company.

Blizzard is gearing up to launch World of Warcraft: Shadowlands’ first major content update, Chains of Domination, and World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Classic.

On Tuesday, it also said mobile game Diablo Immortal has “entered its second phase of testing and is on track for global release later this year”.

Both Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 will not launch until at least 2022.

Activision Blizzard’s total number of MAUs is up over 16 percent, from 374 million in the first quarter of 2018 to 435 million in its most recent quarter.

Over the last three years, Call of Duty MAUs have grown from 51 million to 150 million, driven by the introduction of free-to-play games Warzone and Call of Duty Mobile.

Candy Crush maker King had 258 million MAUs in the first quarter of 2021, down from 285 million during the same period three years ago.

Activision Blizzard also confirmed on Tuesday that Sledgehammer Games is leading development of 2021’s premium Call of Duty game, which is “looking great and on track for its fall release”, according to president and chief operating officer Daniel Alegre.