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World of Warcraft: Lich King Sells 4 Million Copies
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
Blizzard has announced that World of Warcaft has reached 11.5 million subscribers and that Wrath of the Lich King has sold 4 million copies in its first month, breaking sales records that were previously set by The Burning Crusade.
IRVINE, Calif. - December 23, 2008 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®, its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is now played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide. This new high was reached following the November 13 release of the game’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King™.
Within its first 24 hours of availability, Wrath of the Lich King sold more than 2.8 million copies, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. In addition to winning a number of editor’s choice awards from major gaming publications, the expansion has now gone on to sell more than 4 million copies in its first month, setting a new record for monthly PC-game sales. Both sales records were previously held by World of Warcraft's first expansion, The Burning Crusade.
Read more here.
Comments
Anyone else read this as "68% of our customers didn't buy the expansion"?
Wrath is currently only avaliable to US/EU players (western) 4million sold means WoW has atleast 4 million western subscribers, which is about right, WoW has for a long time had a 40/60 player ratio.
expect the numbers to rise sharply once Wrath hits asia.
Good troll attempt though
actually i did too . i ve returned to wow for the lich king but i ve noticed theres a real lack of new players with this expansion . it may be because the lich king really only offers end game content which is great but offers little to entice new blood . warcraft in my opinion has proberbly peaked in terms of player numbers yet still they are opening new servers when theres still low population servers in europe which never seam to improve ... about time they started merging them .
Real lack of new players LOl????
Have u even seen on the new pve servers, they are laoded with new players. jesus everywhere its new players. U think everyone has bought wrath yet? If your lvl 1-60 why would u need to buy warth yet? Scoffing at 4 million copies in 1 month? Tell me any other mmo that sells that many? Not everyone of the 11 million players is lvl 70 or 80 you know, so not everyone has to go rush out and buy the expansion. hell there playerbase is nealry 12 millionm Active players, yes ACTIVE and you mock blizzard? Get a grip please.
theres only 4-5 million players that have a active wow sub in the eu and us and the rest are asians think before typing realy its not that hard
I've read it that way, and I have some questions for Blizzard on the topic...
Blizzard claims to have 11.5M subscribers. Since the game is so easy that you can max out in 3 months without too much effort, it makes you wonder why 7.5M subscribers didn't buy the update in the 1st month... It's just too hard to beleave that those 68% won't buy the upgrade within the first month after release...
Is that because Blizzard counts all subscriptions ever activated in the 11.5M they mention, meaning that there are only 4M active subscriptions at this very moment..? It's just a way you do your PR...
Did you actualy read what coffee said? The WOTLK has reach only EU/US which have about 4.5 mil subs. The rest of .. "68%" are coming from Asia which WOTLK didn't released .. YET. So 4 mil copies for a player base of 4.5 mil , i think it's more then enough for EU/US.
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
Before this thread gets completely overwhelmed by posters who somehow twist the facts and claim that these news mean Blizzard failed somehow, here are some facts:
1: The latest official information on how WoW subcribers are distributed across the world was
That info was released when World of Warcraft had 10 million subcribtions, source: lwww.blizzard.com/us/press/080122.html
2: Expired subcribtions and trials aren't counted as subcribers. So those 2 million in Europe and 2.5 million in North America are players who are either playing monthly fee right now, or who have purchased the game within last month and are under the free 30 days that come with it.
Subcriber definition used by Blizzard:
source: www.blizzard.com/us/press/080122.html
3: Wrath of the Lich King sold only 4 million copies on first month because it wasn't released on China, and about half of World of Warcraft Subcribers come from China. That's the largest reason for more than half of World of Warcraft subcribers not buying the expansion during first month.
That info was released when World of Warcraft had 10 million subcribtions, source: lwww.blizzard.com/us/press/080122.html
2: Expired subcribtions and trials aren't counted as subcribers. So those 2 million in Europe and 2.5 million in North America are players who are either playing monthly fee right now, or who have purchased the game within last month and are under the free 30 days that come with it.
Full subcribtion definition used by Blizzard:
source: www.blizzard.com/us/press/080122.html
3: Wrath of the Lich King sold only 4 million copies on first month because it wasn't released on Asia, and about half of World of Warcraft Subcribers come from Asia. That's the largest reason for more than half of World of Warcraft subcribers not buying the expansion during first month.
Fixed the word "China" with "Asia" for you, since not only China is a big market for WoW, but don't forget S. Korea and other Asian countrys
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
Iceage: Wrath of the Lich King was released in Korea and Thailand.
Source: news.cnet.com/wrath-of-the-lich-king-release-date-announced/
I don't think that Korea contributes much to the game sales, since as far as I know they do play mostly in internet game rooms so that players don't have to buy the games, but I'm not sure of this. Still, 'China' can't be replaced with 'Asia' in my previous message.
EDIT:
And that would actually mean that likely less than 50% of WoW players are Chinese. I wasn't able to find out how many people play in mainland China, but there have been 1 million concurrent users in there so a lot of them. Source: kotaku.com/379047/one-million-concurrent-wow-players-in-china#viewcomments
Australian, Thailand, Signapore and Malaysian players are most likely counted as subcribers to American servers (included to that more than 3.5 million players in North America I mentioned in my previous post), since they play on same servers. But my quess would be that people from Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are counted as Asian and Wrath of the Lich King was released for them. Source 1: www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/the-burning-crusade-shifts-35-million-copies Source 2: news.cnet.com/wrath-of-the-lich-king-release-date-announced
I think that players from Korea (and likely also Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau) didn't all have to buy the expansion, and thus those areas wouldn't have made any significant part of those 4 million WotLK boxes sold. The culture there is diffirent, they play in game rooms and pay often based on hours payed, buying games is rare, as far as I know. If someone who knows better could verify this, or tell that I'm wrong, I'd be thankful
/EDIT
actually if you get your head out of your fanbois posterior you ll notice a lot of what blizzard says about its player base does nt add up . there is certainly not the influx of new player there was with the lich king . people are noticing it ingame . also there are low population servers that ar nt improving and never will so why not merge them with other servers that are in the same state . another thing i did nt mock (grow up)blizzard at all . i think the lich king is a great expansion far better than the burning crusade . but weather you like it or not the game peaked about two years ago ( in the west anyway the new russian servers may be a different matter ) my forcast for the coming year is that wow will lose between 1-3 million subs possibly more as boredom and ecconomic pressures bite .
I think it's fair to say that WoTLK is a success.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
while i would estimate it at more than 4 million .i totally agree with the above statement ... it really does nt add up .
I just love the trolls. The game smashes PC sales records but they'll nitpick at the fact that 6.5 million people haven't bought it yet. Well newsflash - the majority of people are in Asian territories where the game hasn't been released, and why the hell would I want to buy the game if I'm not level 70 yet?
well i guess if your 55 you may want to start a deathknight
I think any expansion in WoW would have been a success at this point......A high percent of their playerbase was stuck at 70 so it didnt matter if the expansion was "Wrath of the WImp King" people were gonna buy it.......As a beta tester of the game I still ahve no clue why people stick with this game for very long.......After playing EQ and some other games for years WOW is just too easy and boring really to commit to for the long haul...... I guess all we can read from WoW is that this is what the majority wants and that is why so many companies are trying to copy it....... I never dreamed when I started in 2000 with all the hardcore players that a game like WOW would be king someday....... I see a game like WOW as entertainment but not really a challenging game......Maybe that is what the masses are after nowadays.
I think any expansion in WoW would have been a success at this point......A high percent of their playerbase was stuck at 70 so it didnt matter if the expansion was "Wrath of the WImp King" people were gonna buy it.......As a beta tester of the game I still ahve no clue why people stick with this game for very long.......After playing EQ and some other games for years WOW is just too easy and boring really to commit to for the long haul...... I guess all we can read from WoW is that this is what the majority wants and that is why so many companies are trying to copy it....... I never dreamed when I started in 2000 with all the hardcore players that a game like WOW would be king someday....... I see a game like WOW as entertainment but not really a challenging game......Maybe that is what the masses are after nowadays.
You started to play WOW in 2000 ?
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
Wrath is currently only avaliable to US/EU players (western) 4million sold means WoW has atleast 4 million western subscribers, which is about right, WoW has for a long time had a 40/60 player ratio.
expect the numbers to rise sharply once Wrath hits asia.
Good troll attempt though
PWNED!
<Mod edit>
World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.
I read it as 4-5 million subs in the western world.
Keep in mind that alot of people will have multiple accounts.
6 million in China though I wonder how they count a subscription over there.
Fun isn't it, people trash WoW with only 4 millions sales of an EXPANSION PACK. Most mmorpg companies aren't even getting close to so many sales on their game ever and can only dream of it. But yeah haters Wrath is a failure...sure sure.
All very nice, it is a nice mmo for the mainstream.
I liked WoW, but I grew up
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Strange, I grew up too, that is why I play WoW. I just don't have time to put the hours necessary for other games and need a MMO which can be played in a more casual way.
And playing a game filled with space ships makes you any more adult? It's a laughable argument as I can assure you a large portion of the world considers gaming as a whole to be something children should do, not adults.
In other news, John Smedley has reportedly been banging his head on his desk over and over after Blizzard's announcement.