WoW Cataclysm sells over 4.7 million copies in first month

by JC Fletcher on Jan 10th 2011 5:00PM

Having sold 3.3 million copies of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm on the first day, it was easy to guess that the MMO expansion would have little trouble going on to record-breaking sales in its first month on the market. And that's exactly what it's done, according to Blizzard Entertainment, who reports that the title sold through over 4.7 million copies since its December 7 release. And unlike the usual retail sales numbers, that includes both packaged copies and digital distribution.

According to Blizzard, that sets a new record for monthly PC sales -- again, it's not a huge surprise to believe WoW has the power to break sales records. Here's what is surprising, though: Activision said that the WoW community is currently over 12 million players strong. Who are the 7-plus million people who play WoW, but didn't buy Cataclysm yet?

Source: Press release

Tags: Activision-Blizzard, Blizzard, Cataclysm, mmo, pc, sales, World-of-Warcraft, World-of-Warcraft-Cataclysm

Reader Comments (31)

Is it 12 million currently active subscriptions, or 12 million people who have subscribed at one point or another? I played WoW for years, but I froze my account about 11 months ago and am not buying Cataclysm. I wonder if they count people like me in that 12 million.

@Trojan

They would.

@Trojan unless they're just now changing it, they've always previously only counted active subs

@Trojan

Bots. Lots and lots of bots.

I wonder what generates more money, wow or the rest of the games industry

@Twigg

didnt WoW have $20 horses or something like that, and people bought them?

@Faenix

Sounds like the average price of a hat on TF2

Im sure they are down the street from the blizzard offices at a strip club just making it rain.

China hasn't apporved it yet...plus there are some who have alt account for things like banking and don't need the upgrade right now. That's a pretty staggering adoption rate tho, and confirms how popular the game still is.

@hiruuamon Ive been playing since 2005 and ive never heard of somebody making an entirely separate account for banking, that's just unnecessary. Separate characters yeah, but those aren't the same, and aren't what's being counted.

@TheDarkWayne

Hmmm...I know of alot of people with multiple accounts. The account isn't specifically to setup a bank alt, but they are using all of their slots, so they need that addition account...maybe to ge the refer-a-friend mount...etc. I know alot of the host of the podcast I listen to have mulitple accounts...dunno what the global population is of dual account holders, but it is probably a sizable figure. They will probably upgrade the other account, but just not at this moment. That vast bulk of that is probably Chinese accounts.

I do believe that figure includes all trial accounts. I mean really, who among us made a trial account to check out the new intro stages of the game?

Here's a better question; how many of those "12 million" will still be playing 6 months from now when there's nothing left to do?

@kpaq00
wait, huh? Didn't the game run out of stuff to do six months after launch? And then six months after TBC? Then six months after Lich King? Do you not understand how MMO's work? They'll just add some more advanced loot and presto, game extended.

@kpaq00 I'm positive this doesn't include trial accounts. Blizzard is a smart and successful company, they'd know that including those and inactive would jeopardize the legitimacy of their claims.

I don't know why people always say things like your second statement. 12 million is up from 11 less than a year ago, so obviously the answer to your better question is "more". If you can't find things to do only 6 months into an expansion, when content patches have definitely been released, you are doing it wrong.

Dammit. Why does Activision have all the popular crap...

@Faenix
Because Activision is smart and can see where the money lies. Hate on Kotick all you want, but the man knows where to put investments.

You mean 4.7 million licenses.

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.

When the 3.3 number came out I read somewhere that it was for retail store sales. It didnt include online sales. (Stupid, I know) Thats why its not close to 12 million.

I'm willing to bet the sales of Mountain Dew and Hot Pockets also increased substantially last month.

Kudos to Joystiq for pointing out that only about 27% of the so called "12 million subscribers" bought the expansion. 12 million my sack...

@EazySCT Kind of hard for the large number of those players who are in China to buy Cataclysm, seeing as it hasn't been released there....

My computer at the end of November so I stopped playing wow for the time being. I have other computers in my house but I hate playing wow on the laptop and I'd rather have a dedicated desktop for it. I was going to upgrade anyways so this is just making me do it sooner.

@Luckyduke24

My computer at the beginning of October.

@ipsum
From the rest of his post it's fairly easy to figure out that he left out one or more words that convey that his computer is unable to run WoW at this time.

Feel free to pick one of the following words and phrases and pretend it's right between "My computer" and "at the end of November":
Fried, died, exploded, imploded, were stolen, were given away, evaporated, turned into a Leprechaun and eloped to Ireland.

@Raniz85

I'm... sorry? I didn't mean to offend... I know leaving out words is common... I just thought that one was funny. :(

It won't again.

First off I'm a "she" not a "he" second of all it was supposed to say it died and the rest of the computers could easily run wow. I chose not to install it now because I was still playin fable 3 and fallout new Vegas and then went home for Christmas and now that I have time I find I don't miss it as much as I thought I would. Why is it people pick apart every simple statement? I wasnt even bashing anyone or being a jerk but you still felt the need to be a douche. Grow up.

@Luckyduke24
First off, the "duke" in your name implies that you're a man.
Secondly, my reply wasn't to you but to ipsum, and I see now that I misread his post entirely. I thought he was picking on you for leaving that "died" out and the intention was to defend a mistake that's fairly easy to make.

Anyhow, I misread his post and never meant to pick on you, so let's just forget about everything and hope you get your new computer soon so you can enjoy Cataclysm.

@Raniz85
WTF!? How did my comment appear in the middle of the thread!?

I hadn't played WoW for a year, then built a new computer specifically for Cataclysm on Ultra settings.. with plenty of headroom too... plus my laptop hdd is failing.. which I need to get around to fixing

How about I just stop being a jerk and assuming you were picking on me :( and I apologize for spazzing. And yeah I hope I get it soon, still trying to decide what to get.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

WoW Cataclysm sells over 4.7 million copies in first month

Reader Comments (31)

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:12PM Trojan said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:52PM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 6:00PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 9:46PM shadowj0 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:12PM Twigg said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:19PM Faenix said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:28PM Cleric said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:18PM Dirty said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:18PM hiruuamon said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 6:02PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 8:16PM hiruuamon said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:22PM kpaq00 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:46PM sigma8 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 6:07PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:25PM Faenix said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:39PM mrfusspot said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 5:45PM sigma8 said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 6:42PM Wulf said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 6:54PM DeadInside said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 7:13PM The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 9:37PM EazySCT said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 10th 2011 10:39PM Luckyduke24 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2011 1:41AM ipsum said

Posted: Jan 11th 2011 4:13AM Raniz85 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2011 5:45PM ipsum said

Posted: Jan 11th 2011 10:24AM Luckyduke24 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2011 1:17PM Raniz85 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2011 5:46PM ipsum said

Posted: Jan 11th 2011 9:41AM Mazrael said

Posted: Jan 11th 2011 7:01PM Luckyduke24 said

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