Two Diablo IV products sit in Steam’s top five best-sellers. The expansion itself carries a 59% positive rating from its own players.

That’s the split screen running Blizzard’s launch week for Lord of Hatred, the second major expansion for Diablo IV and the one tasked with closing out Mephisto’s storyline. Commercially, it’s performing like a blockbuster. Critically — at least from the people actually buying it — it’s being received like an ongoing negotiation.

The Numbers Don’t Lie — They Just Disagree

The Lord of Hatred Standard Edition sits at #2 on Steam’s Top Sellers chart at $39.99, as of April 28, 2026. The Age of Hatred Collection — a bundle including the base game, Vessel of Hatred, and Lord of Hatred — holds the #5 spot at $69.99. Two SKUs, both charting top five. That’s the kind of commercial footprint most publishers spend marketing budgets dreaming about.

Flip to the expansion’s Steam page, though, and the temperature drops. Lord of Hatred sits at “Mixed” — 59% positive from 34 user reviews. Twenty positive, fourteen negative. The sample size is small this early, but the signal is clear enough: the player base is not unified in celebration.

The top-rated positive review opens with a confession: “Alright, so Diablo 4 starting off when first got it was bare bones.” Another player gives the expansion an 8 out of 10 but leads with the line, “Diablo may still be missing, but at least you can now fish in the waters of Sanctuary.” That’s not a victory lap. That’s a shrug with a punchline.

The negative reviews are more direct. “obviously can’t play, logged out constantly” reads one top review, pointing to the server instability that has become a Blizzard launch tradition.

The Critics See Something Different

Professional reviewers paint a significantly rosier picture. PC Gamer awarded Lord of Hatred a 90%, calling it an expansion that “revolutionized what it’s like to play Diablo 4.” IGN gave it an 8/10, praising the campaign as “easily one of my favorite Diablo campaigns to date.” Forbes scored it an 8.5/10, with reviewer Paul Tassi calling its campaign ‘excellent, a rarity in this genre’ and praising the conclusive nature of its plotline.

The consensus among major outlets is that Blizzard has done meaningful, structural work. The campaign — set in the Mediterranean-inspired Skovos Isles, birthplace of humanity in Diablo lore — runs roughly six to eight hours and features what IGN describes as “twists, turns, and tragedies” alongside “deep Diablo lore references.” Two new classes join the roster: the returning Paladin, with its Diablo 2-era aura builds, and the all-new Warlock, a summoner class that PC Gamer’s reviewer described as Diablo 4’s “most heavy metal class.” The Horadric Cube returns from Diablo 2 with a full crafting overhaul. A new Talisman system decouples set bonuses from specific gear. War Plans consolidates endgame activities into a curated playlist with its own progression trees. Endgame difficulty has expanded from four Torment tiers to twelve.

PC Gamer’s reviewer went so far as to say Lord of Hatred “has almost entirely solved the skill tree problem” and delivers “the same thirst for experimentation that Diablo 3 did.” That’s high praise from an outlet that has covered Diablo IV’s growing pains extensively.

Launch Day, Same As It Ever Was

On Blizzard’s official forums, April 28 tells a familiar story. A pinned community post acknowledges players are “experiencing issues accessing” the expansion and says the team is “actively investigating.” Below it, the threads pile up: “How can they mess up every major release?” has over a thousand views. “Refund Successful” sits at 383. “False Advertisement/Refund” draws 234.

Not everyone is furious. One thread — “Xpac is super fun! Great story so far no terrible lag like Season 12 launch” — gets a modest 42 views, noting that this launch is at least smoother than the last one. Forum sentiment always skews toward the aggrieved. But the pattern of buggy Blizzard launches followed by community frustration has repeated enough times that it functions as a feature, not a bug.

The Trust Deficit

Here’s the read: Diablo IV launched in 2023 to widespread criticism that it was thin — a gorgeous shell without enough content to justify the price or carry the franchise’s legacy. Blizzard has spent nearly three years adding substance, and by all critical accounts, Lord of Hatred represents the best version of the game to date.

But “the best version yet” is not the same as “what we were promised.” That 59% user score isn’t really about Lord of Hatred. It’s about everything that came before it — the bare-bones launch, the seasons of grind, the system overhauls that rendered previous investment meaningless. Players are reviewing the full arc, not just this chapter.

The 8/10 that opens with “Diablo may still be missing” captures the dynamic perfectly. Lord of Hatred might genuinely be good. But the game Diablo IV was supposed to be still isn’t fully here, and no amount of fishing — yes, they added fishing — is going to close that gap overnight.

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