Matthew Cederquist Says Diablo Ii Drew 1.92 Million Warlocks
Blizzard’s surprise Diablo ii expansion pulled 1.92 million new Warlocks in its first month, and the first tracked window ran from Feb. 11 through March 11. Reign of the Warlock also logged 93.4 million hours played in that span, a strong showing for a 25-plus-year-old game that Blizzard had left untouched for 25 years.
Matthew Cederquist, the lead game producer overseeing the Diablo legacy portfolio, said the response was personal as well as commercial. “I personally am extremely excited,” he said in a video call, adding, “I think the team overall sort of knew that the passionate players were there, but seeing that scale within it was pretty thrilling,” and “Tons and tons of folks still play that 25-plus-year-old game.”
Cederquist’s Blizzard pitch
Cederquist said he wanted to do something more with Diablo 2 because many fans were asking for new content, and he pitched the expansion to Blizzard leadership as a broader lift for the company. “We can pull the sentiment lever, not just for Diablo but for Blizzard as a company,” he said, framing Reign of the Warlock as more than a nostalgia play.
The expansion was Blizzard’s surprise launch for Diablo 2: Resurrected, a remaster that still carries the weight of the original 2000 release. Blizzard also launched Ladder Season 14 on the same day and pushed a patch with numerous balance changes to the new Warlock class, turning the launch into a live-service reset rather than a one-off drop.
Warlock builds moved fast
Cederquist said his team developed the Warlock class alongside the Diablo 4 team, then watched players move quickly from reaction to optimization. “It was nice because players moved extremely quickly from, I can't believe Diablo 2 has a new class, oh my God, to actually doing what players do best, which is digging into the game, testing builds, arguing about synergies, making build guides, and then preparing for the new ladder that came out with it,” he said.
That sequence is the real business signal here: a legacy title did not just generate downloads or curiosity, it produced sustained playtime and a large wave of fresh character creation in the first month. For Blizzard, the 1.92 million new Warlocks and 93.4 million hours point to a back catalog that can still absorb major content and convert old loyalty into measurable activity.
From 2000 to today
Cederquist also said of the project, “Having it come from my brain to reality is out of this world.” The next question for Diablo 2: Resurrected is whether Blizzard keeps treating the remaster like an active portfolio item, because Ladder Season 14 and the Warlock patch show the company is willing to use new systems, not just a surprise launch, to keep the player base engaged.
