Diablo 4 already going free-to-play, but just during the long holiday weekend

With the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend fast approaching, Blizzard and Steam are banking on Diablo fans being thankful for an extra-long free-to-play Diablo 4 weekend that will translate to a bump in new players.

Right now, players on Steam can play Diablo 4 for free during the Thanksgiving holiday long weekend through Monday, Nov. 27, giving players six full days of free play. This promotion also coincides with a Steam discount on Diablo 4 and its Digital Deluxe and Ultimate editions until Tuesday, Nov. 28. The base game and the special editions are all 40 percent off until then. Both promotions officially end on Nov. 28 at 12pm CT.

While the free-to-play aspect is exclusive to Steam, the heavy discount is not. Players that use the Battle.net as their preferred platform have access to the same discounts, and both the Xbox store and PlayStation store also list Diablo 4 at the same discounted rate.

Why is Diablo 4 free-to-play this weekend?

This 40 percent decrease denotes Diablo 4‘s lowest price point since its release. While games going on sale around the Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend are by no means anything new, the addition of a lengthy free-to-play period on Steam could be viewed as a way to give Diablo 4 a much-needed player boost.

The game’s numbers on Steam have never been impressive due in part to the game not arriving on the platform until months after its June release. Its peak on Steam is only 13,617 from the end of October, and its player average and daily peaks have been falling throughout November. Even before the game’s release on Steam, Diablo 4 was already experiencing a dropoff in players around the time of the game’s first season launch.

Diablo 4 is currently in the midst of its second season, Season of Blood.