World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Becomes Fastest-Selling PC Game of All Time

[Ryzael]

wait did they just admit that they consider expansions to be separate games? SL is WOW9

[Kel_Sceptic]

Most, if not all games have pre-orders, and all pre-orders count as day1 purchases.

2013 video game – Grand Theft Auto V sold 12 million units in its first day making $800 million in sales (including pre-orders) and 16.5 million units in three days ($1 billion in sales).[56]

So Shadowlands it's the Fastest-Selling PC Game of All Time. Cause GTA V is a multiplatform. Nothing wrong there, and nothing invalid. No other PC only game reached this performance.

"Maybe the king of MMOs (which are a dying breed), but to say it is doing better than any other PC game is an outright lie.

Even tough I play and enjoy SL so far, I totally agree with the fact that MMO is a dying breed. That's why WoW changed into this queueup, solo-kind of game in the last years. But I have to admit I like it.
After a 9 months brake from BFA, I've subbed again just for Classic, and after reaching level 25, man do I was so boored, and FOR ME,
J. Allen Brack really nailed it when he said "You think you do but you don't". Cause even tough I've played on many private servers, always wishing to relive the 4-5 months it took me to level my 1st warlock during vanilla, while playing on retail at the same time, when we finally got Offical Classic, that I was wishing for years, after having it I was ... "Well, it is nice to see whatever I wanted or thought i wanted to see, but this for me is to slow paced. In my curent life, where I have a 9h full time job, and 2 kids". So I've let the subb end after playing for a couple of days, then in the Hollydays of 2019 I've resubed for BFA, and I was somepart happy that the SLOW-forever-azerite power grinding was over.

Yes MMO is a dying breed, and most people don't have the time to ivest, are boored of the power rampup of leveling and finally getting to ENDGAME content. That's why most popular games in the world ar based on QueueUp-get your adrenaline/fun-end match-poweroff pc.

[Kolvarg]

So Shadowlands it's the Fastest-Selling PC Game of All Time. Cause GTA V is a multiplatform. Nothing wrong there, and nothing invalid. No other PC only game reached this performance.

Well, technically there are some things perhaps not wrong, but certainly not straightforward right either.

For one, it's not really a PC game, it's an expansion pack to a PC game.

Second, what is the definition of "fastest-selling"? If a game sells more copies in the first 3 days of release than Shadowlands, despite having sold less on the first day, wouldn't you consider it faster-selling? It's a fairly arbitrary achievement to award yourself with that can be quite deceiving. "Fastest" depends highly on the period you are looking at.

And finally - is it the fastest-selling PC game of all time, the fastest-selling PC-Only game of all time, or the fastest-selling PC game amongst those that actually reported day-one sales for PC separately?

[Sluvs]

Utter nonsense. You would have to be on the payroll to make an unironic claim like that and be serious.

Skeptcism is healthy.

Cinism is not. There is not a lot of other ways that this statement can be taken.

And they can't really lie on these.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Delusional is high in this one.

Cata - 12M subs, 3.3M sold up to first day
WoD - 10M subs, 3.3M sold up to first day

SL - 3.7M copies sold up to first day, clearly game has 4.5M subs at best. Oh, this including Classic people. Of course.

Indeed. People are just such dummies when their feelings don't align with what's on paper, for sure. LMAO @ the guy using Google search terms to counter official statements on the matter though.

I remember the exact same behaviour during WOTLK's 12 million sub reports. And every single positive sub report since then until they moved to MAUs.

[Sluvs]

You can't really know that because they have never reported how many "players on monthly or longer-term subscriptions" there are, before. That number does not include players in some Eastern countries in which there are no monthly subscriptions, which means they are specifically looking at players on the West (which iirc were less than half the total number of subscribers they used to report - which peaked at 12M within the last decade). If the game was doing its best in a decade overall, why would they specifically use a wording that excludes half the previous number?

I'd say that wording is very possible to mean not much higher than 6 million or so. Though personally, I would expect around 10M subs (active players) at any expansion launch. Even more so now that there's also Classic.

I disagree. I think it *can* be somewhat indicative of how interested players are in a given expansion (even for that there are way too many variables involved to say the specific xpac is responsible), but it is in no way a contradiction that the game might be in decline in the long term. Even MoP, one of the least hyped xpacs and less liked themes, still managed to have an increase in subs, box sales, and halt the subscriber decline temporarily.


Edit: Here is the wording they previously used:

I think they used this specific wording because it excludes cataclysm peak of 12 million (past decade), but includes the MoP peak of 10 million. So my guess would be 10.5 million or something like that

IMHO, Sales can be a great way to gauge interest but should not be read in a vacuum. No data should be analyzed by themselves, regardless I think we will have a better picture in late january/early feb. But at this point we all know the drill, people play the season 1, enjoy the content and leave before season 2 is even announced.
That is what wow is.

[Kolvarg]

I think they used this specific wording because it excludes cataclysm peak of 12 million (past decade), but includes the MoP peak of 10 million. So my guess would be 10.5 million or something like that

IMHO, Sales can be a great way to gauge interest but should not be read in a vacuum. No data should be analyzed by themselves, regardless I think we will have a better picture in late january/early feb. But at this point we all know the drill, people play the season 1, enjoy the content and leave before season 2 is even announced.
That is what wow is.

I'm pretty sure the old wording (which included Internet game room players) was used up until the last time they reported straight numbers in WoD, so I don't know why it would include MoP but not Catyacylsm, which was still within the past decade, but I could be wrong.

But it's not even clear which regions use monthly-sub and which don't any way, so my point is specifically that we don't really have any way to know the specific numbers, but what we do know is it's a PR statement: no matter how good or bad the game is doing, they will word it in the way that makes it look the best they can, even if it's not actually the best state the game has ever been in.

Another thing that raises an eyebrow: if it is the best it has been in the last decade, which includes 12M subs before Cataclysm, why not just say it is the best it has ever been, considering the game never had more than 12M subs anyway? It's just weird.


Regardless, 10.5M is probably realistic, hell I wouldn't even dismiss the possibility of something like 12M or more given the pandemic and the fact that Classic has released last year, which brought a lot of attention back to WoW and quite possibly helped increase the numbers long-term.

My point is simply that numbers like that aren't all that weird, so I don't see the hype. Just like it is not unexpected that the numbers will go down significantly in the next couple months, it's not unexpected that in the next expansion launch we'll once again have the number of subscribers peaking, and the number of pre-sales similar or even higher. Even if it was unusual, it would still be somewhat weird to praise them for it as players when it has more to do with external factors such as marketing, pricing, timing, than it actually has with the state of the game or how good it is.

The one thing I'm truly curious about is: if there are 10M people playing, but only ~4M have bought the expansion - who are those other 6M players? People playing one expansion behind? (Not a horrible idea for a casual solo player). People in the East who don't have to buy the expansion to play it, only game time? (Again not sure if this is still true and in which regions). People playing Classic?

[h8ryan]

WoD had physical copies in the shops.

That's what "they had no physical barrier" means you dolt lmao

[Gorsameth]

I think they used this specific wording because it excludes cataclysm peak of 12 million (past decade), but includes the MoP peak of 10 million. So my guess would be 10.5 million or something like that

IMHO, Sales can be a great way to gauge interest but should not be read in a vacuum. No data should be analyzed by themselves, regardless I think we will have a better picture in late january/early feb. But at this point we all know the drill, people play the season 1, enjoy the content and leave before season 2 is even announced.
That is what wow is.

I believe those numbers included China and used a different metric as a result (cause they don't have a sub there).

Since they reported specifically subs I imagine its less then 10 mil but higher then whatever number of Western players (and therefor subs) they had at the time.

- - - Updated - - -

The one thing I'm truly curious about is: if there are 10M people playing, but only ~4M have bought the expansion - who are those other 6M players? People playing one expansion behind? (Not a horrible idea for a casual solo player). People in the East who don't have to buy the expansion to play it, only game time? (Again not sure if this is still true and in which regions). People playing Classic?

Classic will be a couple of mil probably, especially with Naxx having just released leading to a surge in players that took a break after AQ.

And as I just mentioned above, it will likely be less then 10mil and I would guess closer to 6, since China isn't counted.

[Cazze]

The one thing I'm truly curious about is: if there are 10M people playing, but only ~4M have bought the expansion - who are those other 6M players? People playing one expansion behind? (Not a horrible idea for a casual solo player). People in the East who don't have to buy the expansion to play it, only game time? (Again not sure if this is still true and in which regions). People playing Classic?

Not everyone buys the game on the 1st day it is available. I knew i was gonna play and i got it on day 3. I'd imagine most people dont buy the game d1(excluding preorders).

[Tarx]

Its good now we can choose in 2 good games with 1 subscription

[Darknessvamp]

Oh man glad Blizzard got in it's fastest selling boasting in just in time.

[bloodykiller86]

Yep, pre-order is included in day one and more people pre-ordered because Blizzard actually gave you stuff in BfA if you pre-ordered Shadowlands.



Looks like Classic will be carrying for years to come. Many servers on retail are still extremely empty though.

retail servers have a MUCH higher player cap than classic servers so yeah some will be empty. personally i think we shouldve moved to mega servers years ago

[Dazu]

I'm pretty sure the old wording (which included Internet game room players) was used up until the last time they reported straight numbers in WoD, so I don't know why it would include MoP but not Catyacylsm, which was still within the past decade, but I could be wrong.

But it's not even clear which regions use monthly-sub and which don't any way, so my point is specifically that we don't really have any way to know the specific numbers, but what we do know is it's a PR statement: no matter how good or bad the game is doing, they will word it in the way that makes it look the best they can, even if it's not actually the best state the game has ever been in.

Another thing that raises an eyebrow: if it is the best it has been in the last decade, which includes 12M subs before Cataclysm, why not just say it is the best it has ever been, considering the game never had more than 12M subs anyway? It's just weird.


Regardless, 10.5M is probably realistic, hell I wouldn't even dismiss the possibility of something like 12M or more given the pandemic and the fact that Classic has released last year, which brought a lot of attention back to WoW and quite possibly helped increase the numbers long-term.

My point is simply that numbers like that aren't all that weird, so I don't see the hype. Just like it is not unexpected that the numbers will go down significantly in the next couple months, it's not unexpected that in the next expansion launch we'll once again have the number of subscribers peaking, and the number of pre-sales similar or even higher. Even if it was unusual, it would still be somewhat weird to praise them for it as players when it has more to do with external factors such as marketing, pricing, timing, than it actually has with the state of the game or how good it is.

The one thing I'm truly curious about is: if there are 10M people playing, but only ~4M have bought the expansion - who are those other 6M players? People playing one expansion behind? (Not a horrible idea for a casual solo player). People in the East who don't have to buy the expansion to play it, only game time? (Again not sure if this is still true and in which regions). People playing Classic?

I bought it 15 days later.
There will be likely a decent number who just didnt want to pre-order (I didnt, as the last 3 expansions have been fairly poor to me with the RnG layers and endless grinding for player power which doesnt sit with my real life commitments), plus those waiting on a pay check, those waiting for possibly a present and some which may just be leveling characters/alts to 50 still and held of buying until they were closer. Could have been quite alot waiting for initial reaction and after the initial rush anyway to base their opinion on whether to get it or not. Some subs could also be just be recurring subcriptions or 6 month purchases which arent actually playing right now but plan to be back shortly.

Also, not sure if still relevant but in previous expansions, the actual launch dates werent always the same for the entire world. I believe it was China was once months behind Europe and US for one of the expansions.

And yes Blizzard spoke in PR style where they are borderline misleading by omitting bits for clarity. Every company or public entity does it, so anyone surprised by that needs to get into the real world. They are also going to use the criteria to rate it that spins into the most positive light (aka the past decade criteria). Positivity both helps sales, and helps peoples perceptions of the game itself. There is one part which im unsure if it influenced their numbers though, recently they gave everyone a free play weekend even if unsubscribed. This was just prior to SL launch I believe. I dont know if that counts as an active user during that period though?

[Kolvarg]

I bought it 15 days later.
There will be likely a decent number who just didnt want to pre-order (I didnt, as the last 3 expansions have been fairly poor to me with the RnG layers and endless grinding for player power which doesnt sit with my real life commitments), plus those waiting on a pay check, those waiting for possibly a present and some which may just be leveling characters/alts to 50 still and held of buying until they were closer. Could have been quite alot waiting for initial reaction and after the initial rush anyway to base their opinion on whether to get it or not. Some subs could also be just be recurring subcriptions or 6 month purchases which arent actually playing right now but plan to be back shortly.

Also, not sure if still relevant but in previous expansions, the actual launch dates werent always the same for the entire world. I believe it was China was once months behind Europe and US for one of the expansions.

And yes Blizzard spoke in PR style where they are borderline misleading by omitting bits for clarity. Every company or public entity does it, so anyone surprised by that needs to get into the real world. They are also going to use the criteria to rate it that spins into the most positive light (aka the past decade criteria). Positivity both helps sales, and helps peoples perceptions of the game itself. There is one part which im unsure if it influenced their numbers though, recently they gave everyone a free play weekend even if unsubscribed. This was just prior to SL launch I believe. I dont know if that counts as an active user during that period though?

The thing is we're talking about more than half the potential active playerbase - if it was only that they would eventually (2 weeks, 1 month later) get up to 10M or more expansion sales, which perhaps not record-setting would still be a great metric to show off, except they never did. For instance, Cata sold 3.3M on day-1, and 4.7M in the first month. That's still way less than half on a 12M subscriber base, a month in.

Also, while it's true that some regions were months behind (I think between Vanilla and WotLK?) and at least up to a few days behind in Legion, BfA was already released globally, and there seemingly hasn't been a huge increase in day-1 sales as a consequence.

The answer is probably a boring mix of that (people who are subbed but currently not playing, or didn't want to pre-order), people who actually don't play the most recent expansion, people who don't have to pay to play the most recent expansion (I believe this is the case with internet room players), and people only interested in Classic. Possibly neither is a majority.


Personally I'm just surprised that people are still surprised how WoW is doing great every time a new major release happens, and still surprised when a lot of people leave a couple of weeks/months after.

Especially when it's not particularly unprecedented for WoW to break the "day-1 sales" record:
TBC
WotLK
Cata

Legion matched Cata's record, and BfA matched Diablo 3's record. Out of 7 expansions only MoP and WoD slightly underperformed on day-1 sales compared to the other expansions, and even then still had very good numbers. Will be a hard time for future expansions to break CP2077's record, though.

[Gorsameth]

The thing is we're talking about more than half the potential active playerbase - if it was only that they would eventually (2 weeks, 1 month later) get up to 10M or more expansion sales, which perhaps not record-setting would still be a great metric to show off, except they never did. For instance, Cata sold 3.3M on day-1, and 4.7M in the first month. That's still way less than half on a 12M subscriber base, a month in.

Also, while it's true that some regions were months behind (I think between Vanilla and WotLK?) and at least up to a few days behind in Legion, BfA was already released globally, and there seemingly hasn't been a huge increase in day-1 sales as a consequence.

The answer is probably a boring mix of that (people who are subbed but currently not playing, or didn't want to pre-order), people who actually don't play the most recent expansion, people who don't have to pay to play the most recent expansion (I believe this is the case with internet room players), and people only interested in Classic. Possibly neither is a majority.


Personally I'm just surprised that people are still surprised how WoW is doing great every time a new major release happens, and still surprised when a lot of people leave a couple of weeks/months after.

Especially when it's not particularly unprecedented for WoW to break the "day-1 sales" record:
TBC
WotLK
Cata

Legion matched Cata's record, and BfA matched Diablo 3's record. Out of 7 expansions only MoP and WoD slightly underperformed on day-1 sales compared to the other expansions, and even then still had very good numbers. Will be a hard time for future expansions to break CP2077's record, though.

The difference between active subs and sales even 1 month in can probably largely be explained by Asia who were(are) a large part of the active user base but did not need to buy expansions.

So if you for example have 5 mil in the west and 7 mil in the east you have 12 mil active users but will not sell more then 5 mil copies of an expansion (numbers pulled out of my arse).

[Gorsameth]

Aaaannnnnd Cyberpunk takes the record.

CP2077 is not a PC exclusive title so no, it doesn't.

[McNeil]

Well this thread didn't age well..... and that while its only a few days old :P

Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 8 million pre-orders across all platforms, with 59% on PC. So with 4.72 million (roughly one million more than SL) it already took the crown. At least Blizzard got their braggings rights for as long as it lasted.

[Kel_Sceptic]

Well this thread didn't age well..... and that while its only a few days old :P

Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 8 million pre-orders across all platforms, with 59% on PC. So with 4.72 million (roughly one million more than SL) it already took the crown. At least Blizzard got their braggings rights for as long as it lasted.

While being true that Cyberpunk 2077 took that crown just a few days after WoW's announcement, I am still happy that about WoW. And that is because WoW is 16 years old. Cyberpunk 2077 was 8 years in development, is a completly new IP and we know how the lunch went.

Cyberpunk was the first game that left an embargo only on the video footage, not alowing reviewers to include actual video footage, of the game they've played, in their reviews. And after the release we all understood why that was happening. A complete mess, bugs wise and performance wise.

Personally I'm just surprised that people are still surprised how WoW is doing great every time a new major release happens, and still surprised when a lot of people leave a couple of weeks/months after.

While I'm surprised WoW still achieves various feets of strenght even after 16 years, I don't think there are still people surprised of how the population drops 1-2 months after the release of every expansion. 1st we seen this happening before, and 2nd it has become the same style of gaming like SWTOR has. And the SWTOR devs actually adressed this topic of player rising and droping, and said they accept that kind of business model and they aren't bothered by it.
At the release of an expac or patch, people come and play that content for 1-2 months then go and play whatever until the next important update. Sure there are alot of people playing constantly wow, or mainly wow and have their subscrition up most of the year, probably 3-4milion people. But the rest til 8-10-12 milion, are comeing and playing the game for its campaign, or one pass through content and they leave, really nothing wrong with that.



The only people that are overdiscussing and questioning this kind of news, are mostly non-wow players, wow/mmo haters, or ex-wow players. Like the guy that tried to prove that wow is going down by showing the google trends related to "world of warcraft" search term (which clearly only a new possible player would use on google), instead of "wow" search term or "world of warcraft (online game)".

P.S. I got two friends that bought the game about 1 week after launch.
P.P.S. Legion and BFA's grindy, infinite power systems made me not pre-order Shadowlands on the 1st day it became pre-ordable. But after seeing the direction of this expac, I've finally pre-order like 2 weeks before launch. There are probably more self-controlled people that are waiting even more post launch just to be sure they are not getting another infinite grinding power system in this expac.

Hope for the best, and really hope WoW's devs keep it up with Shadowlands for the rest of this xpac, just like they started it.

[DuleRa]

Considering the game is only available on PC in an age where every game releases on multiple platforms this is not really as amazing as they are making it out to be. Good for them though.