A brand new report from Jez Corden has shed some gentle on the internals at Xbox gaming, specifically revealing that Blizzard had a robust yr, making it the highest performing studio inside Xbox.
Corden obtained all this data from a leaked inner e mail which claims Blizzard had its third-highest ever fiscal yr in 2026, reaching consecutive quarterly development for the primary time since Overwatch launched again in 2016. Which boggles the thoughts, as a result of I can’t consider it’s been a decade since Overwatch launched. Good grief.
Anyway, the e-mail states Overwatch and Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred have been main driving forces behind Blizzard’s sturdy yr. Particularly, Overwatch had its greatest quarter since 2022. This most likely has lots to do with the sport’s status being slowly rebuilt, together with a smooth relaunch in February the place it stopped being Overwatch 2 and simply grew to become Overwatch once more. 5 new heroes have been launched directly, with Blizzard promising 10 new heroes throughout 2026, alongside a UI overhaul and extra. The outcomes have been good, with Steam participant counts rising and even breaking its personal concurrent participant depend document.
Blizzard had a fairly busy yr, too. World of Warcraft: Midnight launched in March, whereas Diablo 4 acquired its Lord of Hatred enlargement in April.
All of this must be taken in context, although: Corden says Xbox completed monetary yr 2026 down one other 11%, and remains to be a model that’s floundering arduous. It’s at the moment present process a large reset that includes a number of Xbox studios being offered or going unbiased, 1600 layoffs with one other 1600 to happen throughout the approaching yr, and a shift in exclusivity technique. That’s only a style of what’s taking place at Xbox below the management of latest boss Asha Sharma, and it’s just about unimaginable to inform if the modifications will work.
Regardless, in line with the inner e mail, Blizzard’s success will enable additional funding into its video games, workers and different initiatives. Whether or not that’s good or not stays to be seen: one good yr doesn’t say a lot. Whether or not Blizzard can repeat it and proceed to usher in some a lot wanted money for Xbox stays to be seen.
