BlizzCon is practically Christmas for Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch fans because they get to learn what Blizzard Entertainment has in store for their favorite games. Most years, tickets for the event are like gold dust, but 2023 is different, and tickets are still available.
BlizzCon 2023 tickets were first available on sale on July 8 and July 22, when Blizzard explicitly said that the tickets would be available during these two days only.
“Tickets will be sold in two waves through AXS: if you don’t have an AXS account already, we recommend making one in advance. The first wave will go on sale Saturday, July 8 at 10 a.m. PDT. The second wave will go on sale Saturday, July 22 at 10 a.m. PDT,” the post read.
But, on Sept. 29, another round of tickets appeared. Normally, BlizzCon tickets are sold in a matter of minutes, but this time around, you can still get them at the time of writing this article. What’s more, the full version of BlizzCon hasn’t been held in person since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the event was held online, and in 2022 it was canceled.
So, given the fact that fans haven’t been able to attend BlizzCon since 2019, you’d expect that the tickets would be sold out even before you can get the site working properly, but that’s not the case.
There could be a wide number of reasons why this happened, but I narrowed it down to three most likely reasons why fans aren’t willing to cash out: The event’s $299 price tag, the fact that the event will be streamed, and the general discontent among the Diablo, Overwatch, and WoW communities.
In previous years, the price of a regular ticket was $199, but that price was increased in 2019 to $229, and to $299 in 2023. This is in itself quite a price, but when you include the travel expenses, hotel, and food for two to three days, this easily reaches a sum of $1000.
Besides that, why would you spend so much money on an event that will be live-streamed and you most likely won’t miss a thing? You’ll still hear that grand WoW update, watch the Overwatch 2 World Cup, and see what’s next for Diablo 4.
Finally, it’s time to address the elephant in the room—fans are unhappy with how Blizzard games are looking in 2023. WoW is decent at best, but Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, which were supposed to be two of the biggest games of 2023, have disappointed fans. While Overwatch 2 feels more like a reskinned version of the old game that offers lackluster PvE missions, Diablo 4’s end-game is pushing players away even before they even start playing.
So, looking at all this, is it really a surprise that the tickets didn’t sell out?
