WoW: Cataclysm - Blizzard Entertainment Warcraft's old world might have come to an end, but the new one is already paying off big time.
Activision-Blizzard has announced that the recent world-changing Cataclysm
expansion sold an astonishing 3.3 million copies in its first day of
availability, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. The previous record-holder? That would be the second
World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, which sold a 'meager' 2.8
million copies over the course of its launch day back in 2008.
The 3.3 million mark includes both retail copies of the game
and digital sales, though Blizzard didn't break it down any further. Over
10,000 retail stores worldwide helped the role-playing behemoth achieve the
mark by holding midnight launch events, however, so it's safe to assume a hefty
helping came in good old-fashioned boxes.
Check out the behind the scenes of the Cataclysm launch
The news is icing on the cake for a monster year for
Blizzard; back in July, the company dominated sales with the heavily anticipated
release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty [Buy | Search]. But it seems nothing compares to
Warcraft. According to Bob McKenzie, senior VP of merchandising at GameStop,
Cataclysm "delivered even bigger day-one
sales than we experienced with StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty." (That
title sold 1.5 million in two days.)
With a subscriber base of over 12 million players, World of
Warcraft remains largely unrivaled in the massively-multiplayer online gaming
space, though several 2011 titles are gunning for its crown. Sony Online's
comic-book themed DC Universe Online will have the first crack, followed by the
mid-year release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, an online outing created by rival
role-playing developer Bioware in conjunction with LucasArts.
