Blizzard’s Diablo 4 is going through a major rework at the moment with the team confirming “a lot is changing” about the game. Following the departure of franchise boss Rod Fergusson, Blizzard is going full steam ahead on new core changes for the live-service ARPG.
According to the official Diablo 4 roadmap, the next expansion for the game is set to release in 2026. While Blizzard initially planned to release annual expansions for the game, that plan quickly fell apart following the launch of Vessel of Hatred in 2024.
Blizzard has been very tight-lipped about the content of the upcoming expansion, although dataminers have already found references to the long-awaited Paladin class on the developer’s servers. Additionally, with recent story additions pointing towards a return to Westmarch, it seems we already have the general gist of the expansion.
Following a recently datamined image that claimed a December 12, 2025 release date for something relating to Diablo 4, content creator Rob2628 talked to associate game director Zaven Haroutunian and lead live game designer Colin Finer about the surprising date.
December 12, 2025 is the same date as the annual The Game Awards show, hosted by Geoff Keighley. Home to many major announcements, the upcoming Diablo 4 expansion could be shadow-dropped during the show, surprising many with a release date prior to the previous 2026 plan. (It would also, technically, keep to the original annual expansions promise.)
In the video, the game director didn’t explain whether or not Blizzard is planning to reveal the expansion, but simply responded: “Everyone should be watching it. We’re all gamers, we’re gonna watch it.”
Usually, a huge announcement like this would be kept for Blizzard’s own reveals at Blizzcon, but the company cancelled its expected 2025 event in March. With the next BlizzCon scheduled for September 2026, there’s also the possibility of the next Diablo expansion being revealed then instead of at The Game Awards.
Nevertheless, a close release date does seem more likely given the evidence. Blizzard has been working on the next Diablo 4 expansion for a while as well as some of the game’s biggest changes, and these have already been shown off behind-closed-doors to some of the ARPG’s content creators.
In July, multiple content creators were shown major upcoming content coming to the game with one saying, “Last night some people including myself got a glimpse of Diablo IV ‘s future. Take all the stuff I have been complaining about for the past 1.5 years and imagine I ACTUALLY felt heard.”
One content creator, Lucky Ghost, explained that the showcase primarily focused on the game’s “next expansion”, and even hinted that the Paladin class would be added prior to fans discovering evidence of the class in a later datamine.
