Official: Leaderboards for Seasons
In December 2022, Blizzard confirmed that leaderboards will play a role in Diablo 4's quarterly Seasons. In addition to the usual "fastest to Level 100" list for each class, the game will have more granular and interesting rankings. After a Season ends, its leaderboards will be preserved and rankings will begin anew for the next Season, which will have dramatically different gameplay elements than the last.
Ensuring fairness in competition
Blizzard has made a strong commitment to keeping all players on a level playing field, which includes an anti-pay-to-win philosophy with Diablo 4. For example, even though players purchasing the Deluxe and Ultimate editions can access the game 4 days early (June 1), Blizzard has stated that this won't impact leaderboards, which will arrive in the 3rd Season.
Will Diablo 4 have leaderboards?
Blizzard says Diablo 4 will have leaderboards [1]; however, they'll be different than most past Diablo leaderboards in that they'll be more specialized:
"We like leaderboards when they're meaningful. The case where they're most meaningful is when there's a fairly small group of people who are competing for that thing. We find if you look at Diablo 3 leaderboards, there's a hundred or five hundred people who really care about it. Then there are people who are 40,000th and the leaderboard isn't super useful to them. We're still figuring it out, but the way we want to approach leaderboards is to focus on specific aspects where they can be meaningful and less on who's the "top most" person."Joe Shely · Diablo IV Game Director ·
Are they similar to Diablo 3 Seasonal Conquest?
For example, Blizzard referenced Diablo 3's popular Seasonal Conquest challenges as something they'd like to take inspiration from in Diablo 4:
"They'll be for specific activities or challenges. If you look at some of the leaderboards in Diablo 3, we have the Seasonal Conquest where you're doing something more specific -- more in that direction."
Xiphoid has been playing Diablo since the original's release in 1997. He made one of the largest Age of Empires sites in the late-'90s and early-'00s. Now, he runs MythicDrop.com, a premier Diablo 4 fansite.
Sources
| Article | Source | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Streamer Quin69 interviews Blizzard's Joe Shely | Blizzard |
Changelog
| Ver | Change | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Beta | Added section on leaderboards in seasons | |
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Alpha | Published original |
