BC selling like hotcakes made of gold
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 24th 2007 at 12:25PM
Our good friends over at Joystiq are reporting the first of the Burning Crusade sales numbers: in a mere 24 hours, the WoW expansion sold 2.3 million copies on North America and Europe, and an extra .1 million to make it 2.4 million worldwide. That makes Blizzard's expansion the fastest selling PC game ever. And that's game as in game, not just expansion. The other interesting figure is that Blizzard says they have only 2 million players in North America, which is a much smaller portion than I expected of the eight million worldwide players. But of those 2 million, they say 1.2 million bought the expansion in the first day, which (just over 50%) is a huge sellthrough rate for an expansion no matter how you slice it.Now, I thought the Walmart figures were crazy, but they said the expansion would sell 5 million in the first ten days, and considering they've sold at least half that in the first day, that means they're on pretty good track to do exactly what they thought-- at least. And they've just plain rocked the best selling expansion pack ever (Sims: Livin' Large), which sold what seemed like a whopping 700,000 copies in its first year.
Say what you want about Blizzard (the Warriors definitely do), but these guys know how to sell a game.
Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Economy, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zyburn Jan 24th 2007 1:35AM
What game/expansion sold 700,000 copies?
Matthew Rossi Jan 24th 2007 2:03AM
Warriors never said that Blizzard were bad at marketing or creating a distinctive visual world (at least I'd hope we didn't say that, because it would be ludicrous) - we're just saying they've destroyed our class with nerf after nerf after nerf and given all our distinctive class roles and abilities to others: Warlock and Hunter pets, Druids and Pallies have all gobbled up something of what it was to be a warrior. DPS? Gone. Tanking? Gone. What's left? Nothing.
But yeah, they've done an awesome job creating BC for everyone else.
Andrew Herron Jan 24th 2007 4:06AM
I wouldn't say they know how to sell a game so much as they know how to make the base game so goddamn boring at lv60 that if you don't buy the expansion, you have nothing to do but stop playing.
Kyle Jan 24th 2007 1:34PM
@Andrew
And yet they don't stop playing, they buy and continue to play. Because they LIKE PLAYING THE GAME. Get it through your thick head.
GamerJunkie Jan 24th 2007 3:10PM
There's definitely like 20-30,000 copies sold to Chinese farmers etc. I'm sure each farming operation, they must have atleasst 10-20 game chars to keep transferring their gold trail away from being banned.
Dave Jan 30th 2007 4:27PM
The expansion practically sells itself. I heard about this expansion probably at least 6 months ago, if not longer. Anticipation alone is enough to sell most players.
Bartholemues Jan 24th 2007 3:27PM
"nothing to do but stop playing" LMAO! Comedy gold!
People have to get it through their heads that stopping playing WoW when it gets boring is a good, normal thing to do! The game shouldn't be played for years and years on end, it's a fun game but it's not deep enough for that. Once a game gets old, stop playing and move on. Why do so many people not seem to grasp this seemingly simple concept?
Strongmark on Arthas Jan 24th 2007 2:33PM
Of course people would be bored at 60, but they kept their accounts active for a reason, and thusly an expansion was released for everyone, especially the 60s. Why wouldn't Blizzard want to further their profitability? They want to make money and the best way is to keep their customers happy, and that is to let them continue their adventures in Azeroth and the Outlands, with the characters they have worked so hard to perfect.
Das Jan 24th 2007 3:15PM
Pshaw.
I'm sure I made up the phrase hotcakes made of gold :P
Andrew Herron Jan 24th 2007 6:03PM
You're all missing my point.
As far as I know paid expansion packs were not required to continue enjoying other MMOs, but WoW is different and you're forced to buy TBC.
All the articles such as this one are saying "woah that's a huge sellthrough rate for an expansion pack" but it's not like the subscribers have a choice.
exilio Jan 24th 2007 7:36PM
I am very surprised that only 2 million subscribers are from the US - it does make me wonder how many gold farming accounts there are.
Anyways, on the topic of nothing to do at 60, now 70 - I kind of agree and that is why I took a long break from the game. I wish Blizz would take a page from the Mythic play book for DAoC and just create an open area for people, guilds to form groups and just continually wage war - not some lame, instanced battleground.
quickfever Jan 25th 2007 2:56AM
I relaize that Wal-Mart has stores in places other than the U.S. (and Canada and Mexico), but how is Wal-Mart going to sell 5 million copies in 5 days to MAYBE 3 million people? Even if it was 4 million...
Oh wait, that was WoWi Mike's bad math. Wal-Mart's real sales expectations are just short of 170,000 units in five days (simplified). I expect they broke them.
Dave Jan 25th 2007 3:09AM
@andrew>
Yeah 8 million are people are sitting in front of their computers every night, being bored out of their minds playing WOW. Man, World of Knitcraft would be so much more exciting.
Moosli Jan 25th 2007 7:53AM
@ No 11
I think Wal-Marts figures were based on what BC will sell everywhere in the first 10 days. I dont think they are expecting to sell 5 million of them by themselves. After all, there are only 8 million subscribers worldwide so i would be suprised anyone was planning on selling that much!
I could be wrong. If i am then someone needs a reality check at Wal-Mart
Thomas Jan 25th 2007 6:31PM
Sounds like some people are a bit bitter about Warrior changes. Me, I'm ok with what's been done to my Warrior - makes soloing a tad more difficult, but that's what groups are for.
Fastest selling PC game ever...anyone have any numbers on console game sales? Oh yeah, and that's over 100 million dollars made in one day. Blizzard gets a small slice of that, but even if it's 1%, that's still a nice chunk made in a day.