Wrath of the Lich King sells 2.8 million units in 24 hours

PC News | Retailers cry 'wow' as Lich King receives a warchief's blessing.

Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed today that World of WarCraft is showing no signs of slowing down - the latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, sold more than 2.8 million units in its first 24 hours of release. The milestone number also broke the record for fastest selling PC game, which was previously held by World of WarCraft: The Burning Crusade, selling 2.4 million units.

Wrath of the Lich King was released worldwide last week on Friday, November 14. The expansion allows World of WarCraft subscription holders to train their characters up to level 80, gain new abilities and travel to the forbidden continent of Northrend, where they can battle the ruthless Lich King and his army of undead creatures.

Remember to check back for our full review.

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19 Comments

legend166

4 years ago

WoW is just incredible.

VulturEMaN

4 years ago

WoW is just a polished turd....fyi

Benza

4 years ago

Anyone suprised by this, anyone?

Jaws

4 years ago

legend166 wrote

WoW is an all enveloping time sink.

Fixed.

legend166

4 years ago

durrrrrrrrrrrrr i hate all mmo's timesinks durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Benza

4 years ago

What are any videogames if not timesinks?

ObsoletE

4 years ago

Benza wrote

Anyone suprised by this, anyone?

lower than i expected.

rufati

4 years ago

Benza wrote

What are any videogames if not timesinks?

WoW has you doing repetitive tasks that only lead to other, similar similar tasks. You are led to believe that you are gradually building towards *something*, when you are in fact not building towards anything. All so you keep wanting to play, which means you keep having to pay.

That said, I would be playing Wrath if I had friends who were still playing, and a working PC, but I have neither of those. WoW is a terrible game, it's just really good at forging a community bond (edit: and an addiction).

Dropbear

4 years ago

Not surprised, a few of my WoW-playing friends were first in line for the game (or so I heard), and the rest of them are planning to buy it after exams (the smart ones

).

Although the ones who bought it on the day were level 70 guild leaders, or whatever you call em, so they really didn't have a choice.

ObsoletE

4 years ago

rufati wrote

Benza wrote

What are any videogames if not timesinks?

doesn't that describe every game?

doing the same, repetitive task over and over, which leads to similar, repetitive tasks, that ultimately lead to nothing but your own enjoyment, or perhaps some meaningless numbers, or ethereal trophy.

it's as "terrible" as any other game you care to mention, bar none.

1mpr3gn4t0r

4 years ago

Yeah, except that WoW is pay-per-play, and I have a very strong distaste for pay-per-play. Something about it, just irks me. If the game was free, yeah, you pay to play, but you pay for the game AND you pay to play, is double dipping in my view. Should be one or the other. I've told my WoW addicted 'friends' over and over that if it wasn't sub based, I would play with them.

Gtpod

4 years ago

^ WoW + BC + Lich King is around $80, and then about $20/mo. after that (GBP conversion) to play. That $20 pays for a potential one solid month's gameplay - it's absolutely incomparable value for money, and there's enough content in the game to last, frankly, forever. The monthly subscription is an absolute bargain when you consider the retail prices of games like Heavenly Sword, Uncharted etc., at $100 for 5-10 hours of play. That price gets you a potential 3600 hours of play in WoW.

As for the quests being samey, a) that's simply not true, each expansion has added new types of quests, and Lich King in particular has several original ideas, and b) questing is just one aspect of the game, you could go through the whole thing never picking up a quest, or you could just level to 19/29/39/49/59/69/(79?) and do exclusively Player vs. Player gaming, and c) WoW actually does work towards a sort of final goal in that end-game Warcraft opens up a whole new aspect of play called 'raiding', where 10 to 40 to 100 max-level players get together to absolutely fuck stuff up.

People think it's so easy to take a pop at WoW using the limited information they get from press releases, when actually they don't know the first thing about how the game actually plays.

rufati

4 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

doesn't that describe every game?

Every MMO? Yes. Every game? No.

Most games take you to some finite point at which the game ends. Maybe there's a multiplayer aspect you can continue on with, or some other feature (harder difficulty, more game modes), but you know that you've beaten the game.

The best WoW players in the world have cleared all its new content, and they're going to keep doing it again and again, every week from now until new content arrives.

I can't think of any other game whose goal is to play through the content from start to finish once (and only once) per week, making you pay to wait the rest of that time.

Slambonker

4 years ago

EQ2 and LOTR are much nicer games. Why? Well no 7-11 year olds yelling abuse for starters. Plus both look a lot nicer (not like some 7-11 year olds cartoon) and has a far more depth (which 7-11 year olds hate). And yes I have played them all, and many other MMOs for sometime (although I have a job so don't really ever see much more than one character through to level caps). Subscription is fine...means you get a lot more depth, variety and longevity out of your game and therefore your investment of time and money. Some people subscribe to Foxtel or pay to watch DVDs. I choose to live in a fantasy world online...not much difference and for me...far more relaxing.

Jaws

4 years ago

Gtpod wrote

People think it's so easy to take a pop at WoW using the limited information they get from press releases, when actually they don't know the first thing about how the game actually plays.

I bought it myself years ago along with a copy for a friend that I got for his birthday so we could try it together. We both played World of Warcraft till we reached around level 41.

I can honestly say that the game is made to take up as much of your time as possible which is a double edged sword. It is packed with content, but I personally know many people who have suffered due to this fact. Lack of exercise, sleep and social interaction with friends, family and loved ones are just some of the side effects that are so prominent amongst World Of Warcraft. This is because the game is crafted as just that - you are playing in a huge ingame world with a real economy with oodles of content. I think the fact that people subscribe to it is another factor that keeps them glued to it to get value for money. It's no secret that the game is an addiction for countless many people the world over. Websites like WoW Detox are a fair example of this.

Don't get me wrong, no one is forcing these people to sit infront of the screen for hours on end raiding or grinding or whatever else, it's just that the game makes it difficult for many to maintain a balance of discipline in their lives and that's what I frown on.

[/2cents]

1mpr3gn4t0r

4 years ago

Hmm, I'm still not convinced that paying subs for a game that you've already paid and bought is value for money. Its like buying a DVD AND paying every time you want to watch it. Plus for a physical game that you buy (like Heavenly Sword as an example given above), once you finished in 5 hours, you can then sell it and get most of that money back. It has residual value, where as money for subs are gone forever.

And when you study the sub structure versus the actual cost to run it by Blizzard, its totally skewed. They make like US$150m a month AFTER all the costs for the 'content' that people talk about.

Benza

4 years ago

Slambonker wrote

EQ2 and LOTR are much nicer games. Why? Well no 7-11 year olds yelling abuse for starters. Plus both look a lot nicer (not like some 7-11 year olds cartoon)

Some people like there games to look diffrent ya know. Honestly a lot of the stuff I love about WoW is it's completly distinctive art style. I mean that may not gel with everyone (Although seriously you think EQ 2 looks better? That game looks like arse) but it has a distinctive and coherent art style. The games you mentioned don't, they look like generic fantasy crap.

Quote

Don't get me wrong, no one is forcing these people to sit infront of the screen for hours on end raiding or grinding or whatever else, it's just that the game makes it difficult for many to maintain a balance of discipline in their lives and that's what I frown on.

It's a game, seriously. I've played it for ages, raided, got max level charecters, all that shit. Never once has it interfered with my personal life.

Why? Because I'm not some sad sack of shit loser with nothing to do outside of the game. The people that get addicted to this game and let it destroy there lives probbably have far bigger problems then the game going for them.

Quote

And when you study the sub structure versus the actual cost to run it by Blizzard, its totally skewed. They make like US$150m a month AFTER all the costs for the 'content' that people talk about.

THIS JUST IN! GAME COMPANY LIKES MAKING MONEY!
Stay tuned tomorrow when we reveal the sky being blue and water being wet.

Lord Haart

4 years ago

I'm still not over South Park's take on WoW. Regardless of the financing, I still consider this game a blight on humanity not dissimilar to the opium dens of yesteryear.

Benza wrote

it's completly distinctive art style.

So distinctive and unique, in fact, that every other game has gone and copied it... Anyhow, I'll leave this topic before I start crying for the lost souls (though I imagine they'll end up resurrected by TLK anyway...).

Rush152

4 years ago

rufati wrote

Most games take you to some finite point at which the game ends. Maybe there's a multiplayer aspect you can continue on with, or some other feature (harder difficulty, more game modes), but you know that you've beaten the game.

The best WoW players in the world have cleared all its new content, and they're going to keep doing it again and again, every week from now until new content arrives.

I can't think of any other game whose goal is to play through the content from start to finish once (and only once) per week, making you pay to wait the rest of that time.

The finite point where WoW ends is when you've cleared that last raid. It's you're choice whether you want to keep running it every week or just simply cancel your subscription.

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