Activision/Blizzard has announced that the third World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, sold 4.7 million copies in December, a number that includes an amazing 3.3 million copies that were sold during the first 24 hours that the expansion went on sale on December 7th, which set a new record for PC games. Cataclysm, which introduced a dragon known as “Deathwing the Destroyer,” brought major changes to the way the World of Warcraft game plays and how it looks on screen.

 

World of Warcraft, which was introduced in 2004, continues to dominate the world of subscription MMORPGs. In April of 2008 it was estimated that WoW represented 62% of the MMORPG subscription market, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down at all. Last October Activision announced that the subscriber base for World of Warcraft had grown from 11 million in October of 2008 to 12 million. On any given night, absent an NFL football game on ESPN, more people are playing WoW than watching any cable show (and more than all but the top network offerings as well). The World of Warcraft online game has spun-off all sorts of merchandise including a popular trading card game, novels, manga, comic books, and action figures.

 

2010 was a good year for Activision. In addition to the solid success of the WoW Cataclysm on the PC side, Activision posted a billion dollars in sales from its Call of Duty: Black Ops, which sold an astounding 8.4 million copies during its first month of release.