Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment is no longer planning to release annual Diablo 4 expansions.
Blizzard has announced that Diablo 4’s next expansion will only launch sometime in 2026. This marks a turnaround from the developer’s previously-announced plans, which involved the action-RPG getting annual paid expansions on top of its usual seasonal updates. The game’s latest season, the Season of Witchcraft, launched in January 2025.
Diablo 4 does away with plans for annual expansions
General manager of the Diablo franchise, Rod Fergusson, recently spoke at a DICE panel in Last Vegas regarding the 2025 roadmap for Diablo 4. Journalist Jason Schreier reported that Fergusson confirmed a 2026 release window for Diablo 4’s next expansion at the event.
This might come as a surprise for players who were expecting the expansion to arrive sooner, given that Fergusson had previously confirmed that the game would get annual expansions. While speaking to Dexerto in a 2023 interview, he had said:
When you look at the launch of the game and this first season, we see that as building a foundation on which we can build for the future. So, as we look at our quarterly seasons, and we look at our annual expansions, those are the things that we’re really focused on for our live service.
It looks like Blizzard’s plans have since changed. However, its seasonal content plans have not; the game appears to be on track for more seasonal updates in 2025 and beyond, ramping up to the release of its next expansion next year. The game’s last expansion, Vessel of Hatred, launched in October 2024.
The expansion added a new region and character class to the game, but its story was derided for being underwhelming as a follow-up to the base campaign.
