Diablo 5 is coming in 2029, set in a future where our heroes have fallen and Diablo rules Sanctuary

Instead of a new Diablo 4 expansion, Blizzard announced Diablo 5 during BlizzCon 2026. (I thought Mitch included it on our Opening Ceremony bingo card as a joke, but apparently not.) We don’t have all of the details on Diablo 5 yet, but we know enough to paint a picture of the next game, which will shake up classes, show us an even darker Sanctuary, and bring Diablo himself back to the story. Here’s what we know about Diablo 5 so far.

Diablo’s next era begins with Diablo 5, launching in spring 2029. Sanctuary has fallen, and Diablo has won. Players must confront the question at the heart of this new chapter: what must you become when the world has already fallen?

Diablo 5’s story begins in a destroyed Westmarch, years after the end of Diablo 4, where Diablo has already won. Things are definitely bleak — Westmarch is a literal outpost of hell, and the majority of the population has fallen to the Lord of Terror and his demonic armies. The world is burning around us, and “we’re a long way (from the warmth of) the campfire.”

Instead of having a home base, a capital city, or a conquered stronghold, in Diablo 5 your character travels in a caravan through the wasteland. You’ll pick up companions and vendors as you go, expanding your caravan and unlocking new stories about the characters you’re traveling with. We know very little about the characters we’ll meet in the game, but the team mentioned a former Sister of the Sightless Eye and “a stranded Treasure Goblin searching for meaning in a world where greed has lost its purpose.” I have a feeling this goblin will be our new best friend.

No word on whether we’ll be seeing familiar faces from previous games — Diablo 4 had a couple of cameos from Diablo 3 characters, but depending on how long it’s been since Diablo 4 (and the reality of Diablo’s victory) our former friends may not be available.

We the players, as the Heir to Westmarch, are arrayed against these forces with the “largest pool of classes ever,” which suggests the game will have more than Diablo Immortal’s ten classes. Though we don’t have a full list of classes, we know Diablo 3’s Monk and Demon Hunter return to the franchise, accompanied by a brand new Plague Knight class. But we could have eight or more classes still to come — it will be interesting to see which classes make the cut. A wizard or sorcerer class, which has been in every game to date, seems like a certainty. Barbarian, Necromancer, and Paladin/Crusader also seem likely, having been in every game since Diablo 1. But even if all of those classes make the cut, there are at least four more.

Diablo 5 picks up a feature from Diablo 2 with procedurally generated maps for the landscape. In Diablo 3, only some parts of the world were procedurally generated, and in Diablo 4 the world is static, so this change will give Diablo 5 a distinct feel… and may add to the feeling of isolation in a world that’s been devastated by Diablo. One complaint about Diablo 4 is its shared world, which can be packed with players and can make the world seem less threatening. Though the devs did not confirm this, a procedurally generated world is probably not a shared world, meaning we may once again be adventuring in relative isolation. The variability of a procedurally generated world adds some question marks; while you generally knew where to find the Blood Raven in Diablo 2 Act 1, sometimes she was five seconds from town and sometimes she was five minutes from town. It will be interesting to see how this environmental change plays out, and how Diablo 5 plays as a result of it.

With Diablo 5 still in relatively early development, we were surprised to see an early itemization preview. The details were, of course, subject to changes, but gear is intended to grow with you, not subject you to a lootsplosion. Inventory Tetris is back, with items having different sizes in your bag. Plus we’re all probably hoping for loot filters… but the developers didn’t comment on that.

Bringing players into the process early gives us the opportunity to listen, understand what excites you the most, and allow that to inform the decisions ahead. We want to build a Diablo game that honors what players love while taking the series somewhere genuinely new.

All in all, we’re… confused as to why we’re getting a sequel rather than an expansion, but intrigued by the new game. I’ve been enjoying Diablo 4’s improvements and don’t love the idea of losing all my characters yet again. The devs have said they’re intentionally  “bringing players into the process early gives us the opportunity to listen, understand what excites you the most, and allow that to inform the decisions ahead. We want to build a Diablo game that honors what players love while taking the series somewhere genuinely new.”

Hopefully they’ll continue with the open communication as the game develops, and avoid some of the early missteps of Diablo 3 and Diablo 4, both of which launched with some issues and spent years patching, changing, and responding to player feedback after the fact. By telling us about the game early and listening to player reactions, perhaps they’ll avoid similar issues.

But we’re still a few years away from Diablo 5, which is planned to launch in early 2029. So we’ll be in Diablo 4 handling the fallout from Mephisto’s attack for a few years longer. We’ll see you in (some version of) Sanctuary.