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

[Chickat]

Subs are anywhere tom 8-10.5m atm. Probably will drop to 3-6m within 6 months. Then its back to usual.

- - - Updated - - -

If I had to guess, WoW generates about 1.4-1.8b revenue every expansion cycle. So 700m-900m a year.

I wonder what FF14/Eso makes a year?

[Felixon]

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

Horde and Alliance heroes around the world answer their faction’s call to arms in force as Blizzard Entertainment’s latest release surpasses 3.4 million in day-one sales globally

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 2018-- When the Battle for Azeroth™erupted worldwide last week, champions of the Alliance and the Horde around the globe were called upon to fight for their faction. Heroes everywhere turned out in force, and Blizzard Entertainment today announced that as of Battle for Azeroth’s first full day of launch on August 14, more than 3.4 million units of the latest World of Warcraft® expansion had sold through worldwide—setting a new day-one sales record for the franchise and making it one of the fastest-selling PC games of all-time.*

“Battle for Azeroth is a definitive chapter in the Horde and Alliance conflict at the heart of Warcraft, and it’s been thrilling to see players representing their factions in record numbers and embarking on their war campaigns—not to mention joining in ourselves,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “But the launch is just the beginning of this conflict. More epic content is coming to World of Warcraft in the weeks ahead, and we can’t wait for players to experience the full story as it unfolds over the course of the expansion.”

As Azeroth’s defenders continue to explore new regions in search of allies and resources, preparations are being made for the next great confrontation in the ongoing war:

• In the coming weeks, players will be able to charge into Battle for Azeroth’s first Warfront, Stromgarde—a 20-player co-op battle for control of a key strategic stronghold in the Arathi Highlands.
• On September 4, the gates will open to Battle for Azeroth’s first raid—Uldir, an ancient titan facility housing horrific Old God experiments gone awry.
• Also on September 4, the expansion’s first PvP season and first Mythic Keystone dungeon season will commence. The Mythic Keystone dungeon will feature a unique “seasonal affix”—Infested—that introduces new challenges based on the corrupted denizens dwelling in the Uldir raid.
• Beyond that, additional updates are in the works that will provide even more content for players on an ongoing basis, including the ability to recruit the Kul Tiran humans and Zandalari trolls as playable Allied Races. More information on future updates will be shared at a later date.

"Tell them,that the Lich King is dead. And that WoW died with it" - one of the biggest bs i've ever read. Long live WoW!

[Chickat]

I wonder if Lich King 2.0 could bring subs back to wrath level for an entire expansion? Probably not.

[Micronetic]

I thought wow died 12 years ago when "space goats" could be played?

Problem is, WoW doesn't live from expansion sales but the monthly gametime and other stuff, and so far I see more negative threads (EU, NA and mmo-champ forums) than positive about BfA so yeah. GG

[Doomchicken]

Problem is, WoW doesn't live from expansion sales but the monthly gametime and other stuff, and so far I see more negative threads (EU, NA and mmo-champ forums) than positive about BfA so yeah. GG

And that's different from literally every other expansion how?

[Eleccybubb]

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

You realise anything from 1 million is thriving yes?

There are games with way less players than WoW that are thriving. FF14, GW2, ESO and others to name a few. A game doesn't have to have 10 million subs/players to be thriving. Not a single one has P2W either. Not that WoW does either just making the point.

If games can survive just fine on 500k or less players what makes you think this wouldn't?

- - - Updated - - -

Problem is, WoW doesn't live from expansion sales but the monthly gametime and other stuff, and so far I see more negative threads (EU, NA and mmo-champ forums) than positive about BfA so yeah. GG

So does FF14 and that's been doing fine for the past 5 years with a lot less subs than this.

[deenman]

Not too surprising. BfA had by far the most enticing preorder incentive of any expansion, and it became available months ago. I'd expect to see this trend continue in future expansions as a result. Another unfortunate push toward Blizzard embracing preorder culture more aggressively.

well usualy I am against pre orders,but in the case of well established mmo's it is a very different situation,with wow you know what you will get,you will never get some bad surprise like with new IP's or singleplayer games or bless's 5th atempt at tricking a market

[Zabatakis]

Well yeah. Why did you think it wouldn't include presales? It's not misleading at all. Anyone who thinks it wouldn't include presales is silly.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah... no you didn't understand that in your first post. Please note also I am not a wow is dead chump, but you clearly misunderstood when you claimed they "It sold 3.4 million in it's first day. How can it be more clear than that? ". They didn't even claim it like you did. That is why its misleading, you were (easily) mislead by it.

[Cosmic Janitor]

It's just the death of physical sales mostly. If they can keep player numbers around that mark then next one will probably sell even more as by 2020 I almost expect them to abandon physcal copies outright.. do they still even back a disc into the box? There is no point to buy it unless you go for the CE or you really like to collect boxes.

[Eleccybubb]

It's just the death of physical sales mostly. If they can keep player numbers around that mark then next one will probably sell even more as by 2020 I almost expect them to abandon physcal copies outright.. do they still even back a disc into the box? There is no point to buy it unless you go for the CE or you really like to collect boxes.

There are 3 types of physical.

Pre order box with a code so you can get the boost right away, DVD box and CE.

I like collecting physical so yeah I went with the CE this time. Got it sat nicely next to my Borderlands 2 ultimate loot chest edition.

[Xaviaton]

I am loving BfA so far, and I am super happy that the game I've been playing so long is doing well. HOWEVER, I would argue that the record sales numbers speak very little of BfA's success but more so of Legion's as people want more of that. Same goes with the WotLK, Cata, MoP sales. WotLK was wildly popular so Cata had high sales and actually the peak of subscribers. Cata was less popular and MoP sold poorly (also due to "Omg Kung-Fu panda" prejudice). BfA sales numbers is likely due to a hype campaign and following the most well-received expansion since WotLK. Hopefully BfA will keep living up to the expectations as it, to me, has done so far.

[PlazaPlaza]

Problem is, WoW doesn't live from expansion sales but the monthly gametime and other stuff, and so far I see more negative threads (EU, NA and mmo-champ forums) than positive about BfA so yeah. GG

Because players don't comment if they like something, heck, my whole friendlist and irl friends who I know are not active on forums at all and they are heavy gamers. Maybe it has something to do with age, people who work and have family don't like to spend their time off on a whining website and play a game instead.

[Deleted]

You do realise that grind is the exact opposite of gate.

Legion didn't have any grind required, I'm yet to see if BfA will have any.

yes i realiZe that and BFA has both grind (Rep, AP) and gate (Zandalari allied race, M+, Warfronts, Raids) separately.

So you're saing farmin rep in BFA with 75rep per WQ needing exalted to unlock a single allied race is not a grind???

[Eleccybubb]

yes i realiZe that and BFA has both grind (Rep, AP) and gate (Zandalari allied race, M+, Warfronts, Raids) separately.

So you're saing farmin rep in BFA with 75rep per WQ needing exalted to unlock a single allied race is not a grind???

75 per wq, as well as missions, rep tokens from wqs for an extra 100 and so on.

It's a grind but it's not that bad.

Right now today there is about 1300 or so rep up for Honorbound for me. And only 200 of it is tokens from WQs.

[CatchingFire]

It's so cute to see the Blizzard Sycophantic Society out in numbers cheering at this massively deceptive statement by Blizzard. If you weren't addicted to the game you would see that BfA is the most underwhelming expansion of all time and I predict subscriber numbers will drop to WOW's post vanilla lowest numbers ever after 3-4 months. Just wait and see. Oh wait, they don't share sub numbers LOL!

[Eleccybubb]

It's so cute to see the Blizzard Sycophantic Society out in numbers cheering at this massively deceptive statement by Blizzard. If you weren't addicted to the game you would see that BfA is the most underwhelming expansion of all time and I predict subscriber numbers will drop to WOW's post vanilla lowest numbers ever after 3-4 months. Just wait and see. Oh wait, they don't share sub numbers LOL!

You act like that's still not profitable for them though.

The game could survive no issues on 500k subs. I'll never understand this obsession with sub numbers. I mean yeah more is better but at the end of the day the game is still profitable and has a huge amount of players.

I mean feel free to predict. People said TBC would kill the game because it was an expansion. 12 years later and here we are.

People who claim all the time WoW is dead/dying don't know what an actual dead/dying game is. Here is just a list of a few.

Mortal Online.
Rift.
Wildstar.
Age of Conan.
Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Everquest 2.
Darkfall.

List goes on. Those are actual dead/dying games.

And yet again you are free to find it underwhelming. Just don't act like your word is law. There are people enjoying it and there are people who dislike it. Like every expansion.

[Mr chub]

Unless I see numbers I'm going to be skeptical... faster selling then tbc? Maybe in the sense it didn't have digital copies so people had to go to the store... but fastest is such a pr weasel word.

[krl]

Amazing expansion so far, and the sales numbers reflect it.
I see even more sales in the coming weeks, as people hear the massive positive comments about it.
And I also see many Classic players giving it a try, because why not, nostalgia will lead many to Classic, but curiosity is still a thing.

Then there is the challenge of maintaining these numbers with good endgame content, and if anything, Legion has proven that Blizzard finally had the good recipe for that.

[PlazaPlaza]

It's so cute to see the Blizzard Sycophantic Society out in numbers cheering at this massively deceptive statement by Blizzard. If you weren't addicted to the game you would see that BfA is the most underwhelming expansion of all time and I predict subscriber numbers will drop to WOW's post vanilla lowest numbers ever after 3-4 months. Just wait and see. Oh wait, they don't share sub numbers LOL!

The 'players' posting whine comments are actually the people who don't wanna miss out on ingame content because they are addicted to the game because the play it for either so long and/or they spend a lot of time in his / her characters. They whine about this game for years and they still have an active sub. Hmm rofl.

[whywhatwhowhenhow]

I guess you gotta make another strawman so you can keep telling yourself nobody likes this game anymore.

lol I don't even know what a strawman is. Is this kiddy internet talk I don't understand? I live in the real world. A strawman to me is a scarecrow lol.