No matter what critics say, there really is one sure thing about Diablo Immortal amidst all the controversy: people are STILL going to spend money on it, making Activision Blizzard millions of dollars in the process.
This is true with just another major financial milestone for Immortal, as the game has now surpassed $100 million in overall sales from microtransactions. As reported by Eurogamer, literally all of this money is just from the game's recent global launch without numbers from the Chinese market. And Activision Blizzard's new free-to-play MMORPG reached the milestone just eight weeks after launch.
The data comes from analytics firm Sensor Tower, who tracks the numbers of mobile apps across multiple platforms. They compared Diablo Immortal's financial success to that of another free-to-play game in Pokemon Go. In their comparison, they found out that Pokemon Go still beats out Immortal in terms of how fast they raised $100 million (just two weeks).
But while this is the case, again, the game just launched in China - literally the world's biggest mobile gaming market. The game was delayed there for around a month, with publisher NetEase experiencing several setbacks prior to release. Among these was the proliferation of a social media post that could be perceived as an attack against Chinese president Xi Jinping.
In a report by The Verge, the post allegedly came from the official Weibo account for Diablo Immortal. It alluded to Winnie the Pooh, a character that has been actually banned from Chinese internet because detractors use his image to make fun of the president. As a result, the Weibo account for the game has been suspended.
For now, one should expect Diablo Immortal's revenue to grow even bigger and at an even more blistering pace now that it's already out in China. Gamers in the country are among the biggest spenders (if not the biggest) on mobile games in the world, contributing to the market's $45.49 billion revenue in 2021 alone (via Yahoo Finance).
Diablo Immortal is out now for iOS, Android, and PC.
Read also: PS5 1440p Support Is Being Beta-Tested Right Now
Microtransactions, Again
At this point, discussions involving Immortal's microtransactions are already old news. We get it, so many people hate the fact that the game seems to be pay-to-win. But then again, this is really the only revenue stream for a free-to-play game, which was made by a multi-billion-dollar company who wants to make money.
As bad as the microtransactions in Immortal may seem, however, another free-to-play title might have its system look even worse than comparison beat - at least according to PCGamesN. They recently got their hands on the Warner Bros Smash-like MultiVersus, which just entered open beta last July 26th.
multiversus trailer
According to their initial impressions, MultiVersus does have microtransactions. Though it does these in a relatively tasteful way, without pushing loot boxes, pay-to-win mechanics, and every other monetization option into players' faces from the main menu. If you actually want to pay for new content, you have to dig deep through the game's systems as they're almost hidden from view. Plus, all characters can be unlocked for free, with other content like skins and emotes being available in the battle pass.
Activision Blizzard is just laughing on their way to the bank at this point, though.
Related: Diablo Immortal Earned Almost $50 Million 1 Month After Launch
