Diablo III Season 38 only just went live, but some players are already looking at leaderboards that do not seem to belong to this season at all. Fresh reports on March 28 say the Season 38 boards on console are showing old Soul Shard-era results instead of clean data for the new Ethereal Memory season.
That is a bad look this early. Season 38 is supposed to be about Ethereals returning on a fresh ladder, not players opening the boards and finding numbers that appear to be stuck in the past.
What is happening
The clearest report came from Blizzard’s Diablo III forums, where a PS5 player said the Season 38 leaderboards were “not fresh for the new season” and were instead reflecting data from the last Soul Shard season. A reply from an Xbox player pushed the same concern further, saying leaderboard scores, Greater Rifts, and even one Conquest looked like they were still pulling from Season 36, with dates going back to November.
This does not look like one stray post buried in the void, either. The topic showed up in both the Console Bug Report and Technical Support sections on March 28, which at least suggests the issue was visible enough for players to raise it in more than one place right away.
Why it matters
Leaderboard issues hit harder in Diablo III than they might in a busier live-service game, because the seasonal ladder is a big part of the ritual now. Blizzard’s own Season 38 post frames this season around Ethereals, seasonal progression, Conquests, and Haedrig’s Gift rotations. If the boards are showing carryover data from a previous Soul Shard season, that muddies the competitive picture from the start.
It also creates a weird identity clash. Season 38 is an Ethereal Memory season, while players are reporting leaderboard data that appears tied to the older Soul Shard theme from Season 36. Even if the issue ends up being limited to console boards, it is exactly the sort of early-season glitch that makes a fresh reset feel less fresh.
Current status / what Blizzard said
Blizzard’s official Season 38 article says the season began on March 27 at 5 PM PDT/CET/KST and lays out the Ethereal-focused theme, but it does not mention any leaderboard problems. So right now, the evidence is coming from player reports rather than a formal Blizzard acknowledgment of the bug.
When a fresh ladder starts on old history
A new Diablo III season does not need many surprises. It mostly just needs a clean reset and a reason to grind. If players are opening Season 38 leaderboards and seeing leftovers from Soul Shard season instead, Blizzard has managed to make a new ladder feel haunted before the race has even really begun.
