Diablo 4’s seasons need to evolve now before it’s too late

Now that Diablo 4 won’t be having annual expansions, its seasonal content will be under the microscope much more – and the current model may no longer work.

There are lots of Diablo 4 players who love the game’s seasons. The reset keeps them coming back to try new builds and it can be fun to see where characters land in the meta and tier lists each season.

However, there are other players who are growing fatigued and don’t feel like seasons are substantial or interesting enough to return every time. Sure, it was a blast to use Vampire Powers and fight alongside the Seneschal companion, even the new Powers of Witchcraft are pretty epic.

But after seven seasons of making new characters and starting again, some of us are just done with it. At this point, many of us have played with every class, we know what builds we like, and have no desire to try any others.

Seasonal gimmicks like Witch Powers are temporary too. While they may get resurrected as items in the Eternal Realm, as a player, I question whether investing my time in a momentary feature is worth it. And for players like me, these seasonal components aren’t the draw they once were. 

Endlessly starting again

I’ve already invested lots of time and love into my main six characters, one from each class, and they’re the ones I want to take forward into the game. Frankly, I have no interest in maxing out a different one every couple of months. The fact is, there are other games to play and demands on my time. 

I’m also not alone. There’s a growing sentiment among Diablo players that the series should return to “the good old days”, and periodically add content for all players to enjoy at their leisure. This way, players can jump back in with their favorite character and continue their adventure – rather than endlessly starting again.

I get that the seasonal reset is important, and some people will argue that I should just play the Eternal Realm, ignore seasons, and wait for expansions. But the problem is, Blizzard has confirmed Diablo 4’s next major expansion isn’t until 2026. 

Also, while the Seasonal Realm often gets new content, such as a new questline, the Eternal Realm mostly gets ignored – and Welcome Back boosts and Mother’s Blessing events don’t count as new content. Eternal players were treated to a fun new questline in Season 5, and Vessel of Hatred gave us lots more quests to enjoy, but since then? Nada. 

The fun side stories involving vampires, constructs, etc? We could only play those if we made a new character for those seasons. This was all content that could have been added to the Eternal Realm, even after the season had ended.

Even Diablo’s original creator has weighed into the debate, calling out the obsessive grinding for grinding’s sake, while players just push for endgame and don’t even engage with the game’s quests. And he’s absolutely right, while playing Diablo 4’s seasons can be fun, after a while, Helltides and Whispers just feel shallow and the whole experience feels as disposable as our latest seasonal character. 

The answer is simple and has been staring us in the face since Diablo 4 launched: the game needs to cater to both camps. While there have been calls to abolish seasons entirely, this wouldn’t be fair to the players who enjoy them. No, what Blizzard needs to do is to make all players feel valued.

We want to keep playing, we just want to do it our way.

Becoming Immortal

Oddly enough, Diablo 4 could look to its mobile cousin for inspiration. Diablo Immortal also has seasonal content and a Battle Pass that’s updated even more frequently than Diablo 4’s. However, Immortal doesn’t force players to make a new class every season, it allows you to enjoy the season with any of your existing characters.

It even goes a step further and lets you change classes whenever you like, so you don’t need to start all over again – a feature that is very welcome for busy players. But more importantly, Diablo Immortal frequently adds new story content, quests, bosses, and areas to explore. The best part? None of it is temporary, and players can dip in and out whenever they want. 

If Diablo 4 adopted this model for its Eternal Realm, it would be a hack-and-slash paradise. All it would need to do is take the Seasonal questline, strip out the Seasonal Journey (as there does still need to be some motivation for those who play that realm), and then add the story content to the Eternal Realm. 

This way, seasons wouldn’t need to change at all, and those who enjoy having the playing field leveled every few months could still do what they always do. Only those who don’t want to complete another ten hours of Helltides and Whispers with a new character could fire up one of their mains and just enjoy the new content. 

It’s also achievable because this is exactly what Diablo 4 did in Season 5, so all I’m suggesting is that they do something similar for every season. For some of us, Diablo was always better when it was about completing quests, and we’d like it to get back to being about that. This doesn’t mean we want to take anything away from Seasonal players; we’d just like to be catered for too. 

The fact is, now that there’ll be fewer expansions for Diablo 4 than was originally proposed, meaningful content will be in short supply. So the game’s seasons really need to evolve and find a way to appeal to every player, or by the time 2026 comes around, many of us will have uninstalled and moved on.