While Diablo 4 Season 9 makes some welcome changes with the addition of features like Escalating Nightmares and new Nightmare Dungeon affixes, the game still seems to be lacking an important aspect of its endgame. Leaderboards have played a role in both Diablo 3 and Diablo 2: Resurrected, with the latter featuring a seasonal Ladder for players to try and get their name on. However, Diablo 4 currently lacks an official Leaderboard, leaving a void for the community to fill itself.
Diablo 4‘s Leaderboard was first introduced alongside The Gauntlet, a new endgame activity added in Season 3. However, The Gauntlet and Leaderboard were both removed in Diablo 4 Season 6 due to the game mode being easily exploitable. The developers opted to pull the plug on it, with the intention of reworking and reintroducing it at a later time. However, three seasons later and the Leaderboard is still missing, leaving Diablo 4 players without a crucial endgame tool.
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A Leaderboard for Diablo 4 is not only a great feature for those wanting to show off their success and create a tangible goal for their build, but it also serves as a tool for players to get a feel for the meta in a given season. Players can look to see what the high scores are on the in-game Leaderboard and see what classes the top builds are running to get a better idea of what they need to be playing to compete. Without an official Leaderboard for Diablo 4, the community has turned toward unofficial sources for this information.
Currently, players can find an unofficial leaderboard for Diablo 4‘s Pit at helltides.com, which features the top-ranked Pit times, the Pit level they played, and their class and build. This is very helpful information for understanding Diablo 4 Season 9’s meta, which would be even more helpful if it were available in-game. Unfortunately, the previous incarnation of Diablo 4‘s Leaderboard that was associated with The Gauntlet was largely unhelpful since most of the top-ranked times were unobtainable by normal means, being dominated by an exploit that broke the intended way to play the Gauntlet.
Diablo 4‘s 2025 roadmap hints at the Leaderboard returning in 2026; however, there is no clear window for when it would release, and it may not return until the next major expansion launches.
The biggest problem with the initial implementation of Diablo 4‘s Leaderboards was that they were tied to the flawed Gauntlet game mode. However, as the unofficial leaderboard shows, other Diablo 4 endgame activities like the Pit are much better suited for tracking the top-ranked players with an official in-game leaderboard, as it can break down stats like Pit tier, build, and time in a more useful format than The Gauntlet’s Leaderboards could. As such, the return of Leaderboards doesn’t have to be tied to The Gauntlet, and would likely be better served alongside a different game mode like the Pit instead.
Other than the Pit, Leaderboards for Diablo 4 game modes like Infernal Hordes or the Lair Boss ladder would also be beneficial. Although the Pit is generally considered the pinnacle of Diablo 4‘s endgame content, Lair Bosses and Infernal Hordes are other replayable events that could be optimized for Leadboards and may even result in a meta entirely separate from the Pit. Regardless of where Leadboards make their return, adding them back into Diablo 4 sooner rather than later could go a long way toward making Diablo 4‘s endgame content feel more meaningful, especially for longtime players who feel like the game has grown stale.
9/10
June 6, 2023
M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language
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