Battle for Azeroth Becomes Fastest-Selling World of Warcraft Expansion Ever

[chiddie]

There we go.

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Well it's not.

It sold 3.4 million in it's first day. How can it be more clear than that?

Are you going to say anything post Wrath is misleading just to spin the argument to suit your point?

It doesn't matter if the day 1 sales are digital or physical. It's still money in their pocket.

And maybe it would have been more if they were around before Cata. However we will never know.

10 millions in ONE day?

Not even GTA can make this number.

[GreenJesus]

Did they realize the sales of the preorders on the day BFA launched and included those as part of the 3.4 million?

[Isoz]

bfa has been out a week and abit and ive already got 3 level 120s fully mythic geared. leveling is too easy. gearing up took abit of a challenge with personal loot.

[mob1lejunkie]

Fucking dick suckers in here have forgotten how good WoD start was. They also sold A LOT of copies.........mean shit youö

$170m (3.4m * $50) in day 1 sales means shit? Some of you lack perspective. $170m is a lot of money on day 1 and many game companies would do anything to get this much money.

[GreenJesus]

This is a good sign for Blizz. When WoD launched it had 10 million subs and BFA had more sales on first day than WoD.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Not to give credence to the "gaem iz ded" crowd...but the most important thing is how long those people stay subscribed for. Blizzard doesn't release sub numbers anymore so we may never get the answer to that question.

[relaxok]

That's so misleading. If they'd have had digital presales pre-Cataclysm, 3.4m wouldn't come close to setting the record. Wrath almost certainly would have been somewhere north of double that, maybe even more than 10m.

That's plainly false. Preorders are a very minority % of total game sales for any title.

[mhdoe]

bbbuuuttttttt but but Vanilla?

[Joti]

Surprised no-one has mentioned how BFA was the first expansion that could be purchased completely via in-game currency

Yeah, the ability for many players to purchase the expansion with BNet balance not usable for anything other than digital content gave BFA a huge advantage over the other expansions, particularly considering the day one, preorders included aspect of this record. It's not like that $60 in BNet balance was going to get you through to your next paycheck, potentially delaying your purchase of the game, most people who had the BNet balance pulled the trigger early because what else are you going to spend it on?

At the end of the day, 3.4 million is still 3.4 million. It really goes to show how smart a move the wow token was for Blizzard. It helps them retain players that might not stay subbed and current in the game if they actually had to pay for it.

No knocks on the expansion or the game, but as far as this record goes? It needs a big fat * next to it.

[VekniDarkIron]

Well, it does matter actually - digital is a lot better.

Sell a $40 expansion digital, Blizzard get $40 in their pocket.

Sell a $40 expansion physical in a bricks & mortar store, Blizzard get maybe $10?

Which, of course, makes BFA even more profitable and successful since this stuff is all digital these days.

You've never ordered video games for a retail store, have you? It's not "it retails for $50 so the retailer gets half". The RETAILER is lucky to get $10. Video game retail has a VERY slim margin of profit.

[HitRefresh]

This is also the first expansion to simultaneously release across the world

[LordKain]

I’m loving the salt from the WoW haters. Most entertaining.

Good to see that WoW will be here to stay for many years.

[bornlol]

So basically being happy, enjoying the game and glad that it's sold well is "white knighting"?

Uhmmmm if you say so. I mean really grasping at straws there if you think that's what a white knight is but go for it.

But I'm sure you have the statistics to back up every player quitting after the month. Just like those who have the statistics that claim WoW is down to a million subs.

holy shit the white knights don't even know they are white knighting

the outburst of comments like "take that naysayers our game is thriving" when the statistics linked mean absolutely NOTHING, yes, that is white knighting.

enjoy the game, I have no problem with that, I enjoy it as well for what it is... i'm just pointing out how hilarious it is that you think presale statistics mean anything

[Hinastorm]

I know tons of people preordered it, 3.4 Mil on the first day (assuming this does not include preorders) is pretty dang huge.

Thats gotta mean at least 5 mil first week, with preorders included. Thats huge.

While it shows mmo's can be and are still profitable, I also hope potential mmo devs finally realize that you can't clone wow in any reasonable amt of time, its just not possible.

Stick to making mmo's with a more focused playerbase in mind, weather than means the more hardcore, older players in the case of Pantheon, or more casual players as is the case for most mobile mmos.

[Prokne]

holy shit the white knights don't even know they are white knighting

the outburst of comments like "take that naysayers our game is thriving" when the statistics linked mean absolutely NOTHING, yes, that is white knighting.

enjoy the game, I have no problem with that, I enjoy it as well for what it is... i'm just pointing out how hilarious it is that you think presale statistics mean anything

Well, the numbers mean at least 3.4 million people are playing BfA. That's not very much when compared to past expansions where we knew the sub numbers. It really just means that Blizzard considers it a success since they have shifted to focusing on sales instead of subs as their marker of success. This makes sense since the sales are fairly even (gaining slightly at release) while subs are a roller coaster.

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I know tons of people preordered it, 3.4 Mil on the first day (assuming this does not include preorders) is pretty dang huge.

Thats gotta mean at least 5 mil first week, with preorders included. Thats huge.

The 3.4 includes pre-orders, which is why it can't be compared to the most successful expansions because they didn't have digital pre-orders. It would also be interesting to see how many units of the previous expansions were bought so that the number can be put in more perspective. I'm also thinking the length of pre-sales before the exp comes out plays a factor - longer time to buy, more sales. But, I don't know the numbers for these things.

[Galateacyc]

Notice the wording difference between: "day one" sales totals and "one day" sales totals.
They've been peddling their void elfs and brown orcs for many months now, and all they manage for "day one" sales is 3.4 mil?
Corrent me if I'm wrong, but before cata, weren't "day one" and "one day" sales the same thing (as the xpac was only available on the release date)?
Every time they report this number as a huge success, I am forced to remember the previous record, which, IIRC was WoD.

[Doctor Funkenstein]

Translation: "Pre-sales sucked, but people decided to give it a chance after it was released instead."

[OreoLover]

the outburst of comments like "take that naysayers our game is thriving" when the statistics linked mean absolutely NOTHING, yes, that is white knighting.

...nope.

When a game has 1,000,000+ with this pay structure, that's thriving.

$$$ wins, regardless of comparisons to prime $$$.

[scart35]

Blah, useless statistics "day-one" numbers mean shit(Lot of bonuses for pre-ordering so I can see why), player retention is where it's at. I would rather like to see numbers after month of the launch compared to previous expansions...

[Synstir]

A new record!!! Super, good for Blizz.
WOW is still the king.