> Who does a boycott really hurt?

The largest shareholders? ATVI has dropped significantly since this episode started. The assumption is this forces changes in management and leads to changes to address the toxic culture that triggered the boycott (more likely general instability hurting confidence in ATVI's ability to deliver).

It looks like that's how this is playing out.

In all but the most large scale example it’s only the company’s shareholders that are hurt which arguably is the perfect target as they ultimately control the company.

I.e. you hurt the retirement funds and people owning ETF's (the largest Blizzard shareholders are Vanguard, Fidelity and Blackrock, through their ETF funds which track e.g. S&P 500 so would not/ could not divest Blizzard because of that, nor would attempt to control the company), and do not hurt the particular company managers who are actually making the unethical decisions.

Owning stock means being responsible for the companies actions, the fact most people want to passively invest is part of the problem.