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World Of Warcraft's U.S. Retail Sales Total 8.6 Million
arctarus
Member UncommonPosts: 2,581
Link :www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php
Blizzard's World Of Warcraft has sold a spectacular 8.6 million copies to date, according to NPD data provided to Gamasutra.
Following the revelation that The Sims 3 sold more than 800,000 copies in its first month at U.S. retail, Gamasutra followed up with NPD to find out how well WoW -- perhaps the only retail competitor to The Sims series over the past few years -- has fared.
The NPD Group rolled up multiple SKUs of the massively popular PC online game and its expansion packs since its November 2004 launch to arrive at the 8.6 million figure.
No information on average sale price across all versions was provided. But presuming $30 for each unit sold (the core game currently retails at $19.95; expansion packs and compilations for as much as $39.95), it amounts to as much as $258 million total from U.S. retail alone.
The statistics provided by NPD included the base World of Warcraft, plus the Collectors Edition version, the expansion pack-bundling Battle Chest, and the two standalone expansions: The Burning Crusade and Wrath Of The Lich King.
Although the operator transition in China is likely to have diminished the userbase somewhat, Activision Blizzard's most recently-announced total of 11.5 million subscribers is the company's main moneyspinner.
Millions in the West pay $15 a month to play the game, which means hundred of millions of dollars yearly for Blizzard. World of Warcraft shows no signs of losing its massive lead in the subscription MMO market in the near futue.
Just to make other game companies WAKE UP and produce a decent game...
RIP Orc Choppa
Comments
It amazes me that the battlechest (original wow) is still on the top 20 list after all these years. I'ts hard to believe so many new people are starting the game in the US.
Well, regardless of peoples personal feelings about the behemoth that this game is, you really have to respect them for making mmorpgs more than just a niche market in the western world.
Does the data include all accounts and expansion packs bougth online directly from Blizzard, or just the units sold by retailers?
As far as I know NDP only tracks Brick and Mortar sales.
That's why news sites always add steam/DD lists as well.
Maybe in part is due to new mmo being release.
Example, Alan dont play mmo, but have been a big fan of AoC since young, so when the mmo of what he love is being release, he give it a try, hook on the concept of mmo but dont like the game. So his guidies introduce him to WoW, and there you have it.
11mil +1.....
So those new mmo with large lore fan base when they screw their own release, they are just pushing more and more players towards WoW...
RIP Orc Choppa
The retailers that NPD cant get sales figures from they try and guess. This includes Wal-Mart. You may laugh but Wal-Mart is a major chain that sells lots of video games.
The actual sales are probably closer to 10 million. NPD is good for giving you "ball park" figures.
If we take Blizzard's word that there are 2.5 million North American subscribers (though unlikely since they whimped out of giving EU and NA figures, which they normally do, in the last report) and factor in this report doesnt include online sales or Oceanic(500,000+ copies)/South American and possibly Canadian sales, then it presents some interesting data.
As I always suspected WoW's rentention rate is nothing spectacular. Lets compare this to Everquest.
Everquest at its peak had 550,000 worldwide subscribers, just before WoW was released. www.mmogchart.com/Chart2.html
Now everquest had already been out for 5 years when it hit its peak, much the same time as WoW has been out.
Given that there has roughly been 10 million WoW units sold (8.6 million boxes in the USA, sales in Oceania and South America and online sales) then WoW only has a 25% rentention rate.
Apply the same numbers to EQ would have had 2.2 million box sales mid 2004 (550,000 x 4 assuming 25% retention) when it was at its peak. Extremely unlikely.
Final Fantasty peaked at 650,000 subscribers. 2.6 million box sales? Doubtful.
And with such a huge amount of box sales Blizzard only have to get a small fraction to re-sub to increase numbers. Explains why WoW's expansions are more a re-imaging of the franchise rather than expansions.
A WoW expansion is more changing the game to suit the market than expanding current content. And Blizzard knows that most old timers who have become disgruntled with the game, like me, will at some point in the future re-sub (I'll probably try next expansion).
Do not care.
But thanks for the info.