Leaked Blizzard email: studio is now Xbox's 'top performing' amid wider cuts
Internal email from Blizzard President Johanna Faries says the studio topped Xbox's FY26 studio rankings even as parent Xbox sheds thousands of jobs.
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Summary, timeline and people extracted by Claude from 24 items across 3 sources · 8h ago. Quotes are verbatim.
A leaked internal email from Blizzard President Johanna Faries, reported by Windows Central, says Blizzard ended Microsoft's fiscal year 2026 as the top-performing studio in Xbox's studios division, driven by Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and a resurgent Overwatch. The news lands against a backdrop of Xbox-wide struggles, including an 11% overall revenue decline and layoffs affecting thousands of employees across studios like id Software, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs.
- A leaked internal email from Blizzard President Johanna Faries says Blizzard was Xbox's top-performing studio in FY26, its third-highest revenue year ever, without releasing a new game.
- Growth was driven by Diablo 4's Lord of Hatred expansion (April 28, 2026) and a resurgent Overwatch, which had its strongest quarter since 2022 and added multiple new heroes in 2026.
- The success contrasts with a broader Xbox downturn: overall revenue down 11% for FY26 and layoffs/divestitures affecting studios like id Software, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, and Double Fine.
- Faries frames the results as momentum heading into BlizzCon 2026 in Anaheim on September 12.
How it unfolded
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Event BlizzCon 2026 (upcoming)
Faries' email frames BlizzCon 2026 in Anaheim as a springboard to build on Blizzard's momentum.
- 5 weeks quiet
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Reaction Reddit discussion on Overwatch's staying power
Commenters debate Overwatch's cultural and commercial impact compared to Fortnite and other live-service games, with mixed views on its current player engagement.
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Report Windows Central publishes leaked emails
Windows Central reports the leaked internal emails, revealing Blizzard was Xbox's top-performing studio in FY26 amid an 11%-down year for Xbox overall.
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Report Other outlets pick up the story
Polygon, TheGamer, and VGChartz republish and analyze the Windows Central report, noting Blizzard achieved this despite releasing no new game in FY26.
- 8 days quiet
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Event Faries sends internal email
Blizzard President Johanna Faries sent staff an email (described as sent "this past week"/"last week") celebrating FY26 results and rallying the team ahead of BlizzCon 2026.
- 14 weeks quiet
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Event Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred launches
Diablo 4's expansion Lord of Hatred released, adding new classes, gameplay updates and areas, and is cited as a key driver of Blizzard's FY26 revenue.
- 11 weeks quiet
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Event Overwatch adds five heroes at once
Blizzard released five new Overwatch heroes on Feb. 10, 2026, the most added simultaneously since launch, part of a plan for 10 new heroes across the year.
- 528 weeks quiet
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Event Overwatch launches
Faries' email cites 2016, the year Overwatch launched, as the last time Blizzard saw consecutive years of growth before FY25-FY26.
What people are saying verbatim
“In FY26 Blizzard ended the year as the top-performing studio in Xbox's studios division, and this past year has marked our third highest fiscal for top line revenue in Blizzard's history.”
Johanna Faries, Blizzard President · Windows Central · Aug 8
“FY25 and FY26 were our first back-to-back years of growth since FY17.”
Johanna Faries, Blizzard President · Windows Central · Aug 8
“Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and Overwatch drove exceptional performance in particular, with Overwatch delivering its strongest quarter since 2022.”
Johanna Faries, Blizzard President · Windows Central · Aug 8
“It's my hope that the event can shine a light on the work underway at Blizzard, and that it can serve as a powerful springboard into a new era of momentum and excitement behind our mission to bring joy and belonging for communities worldwide.”
Johanna Faries, Blizzard President · Windows Central · Aug 8
“These are sad indie numbers. *i got 3k+ in overwatch and counting. Game is dead”
Certain-Business-472, Reddit commenter · Reddit · Aug 8
“I actually don't think we've seen a multiplayer game accomplish the same since then Fortnite released a year after overwatch”
MegaDuckDodgers, Reddit commenter · Reddit · Aug 8
Voices from the web unedited
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Not relevant to this news but when I was a young software engineer (25 years old) I interviewed for Blizzard. First round with leadership/hiring manager phone screen went very well so they flew me over to California for a full day of interviews. First they put me alone in a room with a computer and told me to complete a coding task, which I did…
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Blizzard reportedly had its third-best fiscal year ever, becoming Xbox’s top-performing studio for 2026 amid wider Microsoft Gaming layoffs and restructuring. https:// 0x5f.sh/AdheWk # Blizzard # Xbox # MicrosoftGaming # GamingNews
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they've been pumping out new heroes like crazy This isn't a good thing. There are a couple that are reasonably novel, and reasonably well-designed (Domina), or "fine, I guess, but just more of the same" (Emre). But most of them are either made to be "easier to win with versions of older heroes" (Sierra, Anran), or just gimmicky messes that aren't…
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I don't think the bar is that high for a new mmo personally, since if it's genuinley that good people will naturally gravitate towards it. The real kicker is just not fucking it all up when you do get that large growing player base, since for whatever reason every mmo that had a chance has decided to just kill itself in one way or another. It's…
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The activision purchase was a much bigger deal. People kinda exaggerate how relevant modern bethesda still is when their last smash hit was still skyrim on 360/ps3 or fallout 4 on ps4/x1 depending on your POV. Either way it was over a decade ago. Assuming elder scrolls 6 comes out before I die and it's somehow bigger than skyrim, that would still…
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Compared to how much WoW has been a big thing for many years since the release and is still quite popular to this day with the whole re-release, seems like a bigger impact overall. And regarding a game accomplishing the same, I'd say Fortnite did it the very next year. That thing jumped out of every piece of media for a while.
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They didn't just hate them, they actively yelled and bickered at each other. The jeff interview made that abundantly clear. As a matter of fact, activision meddling was directly responsible for both of blizzards founders leaving the company because they started sending in "secretaries" to manage all their projects.
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I solo queue almost exclusively. Recently grouped with some folks and they started discussing skins they bought or were contemplating buying. I couldn't believe my ears. The value proposition on cosmetics at the prices they're asking is so damn low, it makes me actually worried about us as a species.
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https://steamdb.info/app/2357570/charts/#max For reference, Path of Exile 2 pulled in almost half a million players and is at "the end" of the league pulling in 30k players. These are sad indie numbers. *i got 3k+ in overwatch and counting. Game is dead
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I played a lot of OW1 and didn't make the switch. I think that hero shooters are a lot like MMOs and MOBAs. They had their peak, the majority have moved on, but a lot of people found their niche and stayed.