It’s immediately clear to anyone who plays (or keeps up with) Diablo 4 that it’s the biggest Diablo game Blizzard made. The game takes place over a massive open world of different regions – each with their own struggles, politics, enemy factions and stories.
It has a lengthy campaign that serves as an introduction to Diablo 4’s many mechanics, establishes a bold new story, introduces new characters, and builds upon what came before – even if we would have liked it to have been a little more brave.
But how many people did it take to make such a massive game? The answer is, probably not 9,167! That figure is not random. MobyGames, a database that chronicles the names and roles of game developers over multiple disciplines, revealed (via Exputer) that Diablo 4’s credits include over 9,000 people.
9,167 people were credited in the making of Diablo IV, a new record!
Let’s dig into the numbers… (“Stay a while and listen”) pic.twitter.com/iWRJx4mGsY
— MobyGames 🐳 (@MobyGames) July 10, 2023
According to Diablo 4’s MobyGames page, that number is broken down to 8,692 developers, and 475 thanks. Audio-related roles are seemingly responsible for the largest headcount, at 2,464 people.
As impressive as this number is, however, it’s not entirely accurate. While Diablo 4’s credits do indeed include 9,167 names, that’s not actually representative of the number of people who worked on the game. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier explained on Twitter that the credits include everyone who works at Blizzard, which includes people from Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and all the other teams within the company.
“9,000 people did not actually work on Diablo 4,” Schreier said.
Diablo 4 is already one of the biggest launches of 2023, with high critical praise, legions of a dedicated fans, and over $666 million in sales in less than week from launch.
Diablo 4’s next major moment is, of course, the launch of Season of the Malignant on July 20, which will be preceded by a major patch on July 18.