World of Warcraft: Legion Sells 3.3 Million Copies on Day One, Matches Previous Expansions

[ffronw]

World of Warcraft: Legion Sells 3.3 Million Copies on Day One, Matches Previous Expansions

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1348/1348319.jpgThe latest World of Warcraft expansion sold like gangbusters on its first day, matching the day one totals of previous expansions.

World of Warcraft's playerbase has declined over the past few years. Although it was at a record high of over 12 million at the launch of 2010's Cataclysm expansion, by the time the Warlords of Draenor expansion was in full swing, the numbers were down, falling to 5.6 million subscribers in August 2015. Consequently, few were surpised when Blizzard announced at Blizzcon 2015 that it would no longer be sharing its subscriber numbers.

But if you thought those numbers were bad news for the newly-launched Legion expansion, think again. Blizzard announced to day that the latest expansion sold through 3.3 million copies on launch day, matching the day-one sales of previous expansions. WoW also had its highest launch-day concurrent player counts since the launch of Cataclysmin 2010.

Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, said of the news, "It's been a thrill to see players hunting demons, powering up Artifacts, and freely exploring all the new zones in Legion. We worked hard to make this the best World of Warcraft expansion yet, and we look forward to providing players with even more content as Legion's epic story unfolds in the months ahead."

Although the launch of Legion was barely a week ago, Blizzard isn't resting on it laurels. They've already shown off the game's next patch, which will bring back the popular uncovered a hidden world boss [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168201-Next-World-of-Warcraft-Patch-Announced-Before-Legion-Launch-Takes-Players-Back-to-Karazhan].

At least for now, it's safe to say that World of Warcraft is surging again. The question will be how long Blizzard can maintain the momentum.

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[Saelune]

I dont know why people talk about WoW declining as if I am supposed to feel bad that Blizzard is slightly less rich.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Makes sense to me. Those remaining 5.6 million have got to be the the most die hard fans the game has. Obviously anyone who's had that much kool aid is going to be interested in the expansion. Still though, 3.3 million is incredibly impressive. I stopped after Wrath of the Lich King personally. Just wish they'd give us Warcraft 4 or that remaster of WC3 they hinted at.

 

[Li Mu]

I have been pretty cold to WoW since Lich King. I thought Cata was terrible. I skipped Pandaria completely. I played Warlords for about a week (which I did enjoy) but very quickly began to hate the game.
Legion is just weird. It has somehow turned everything around and is actually really good. I'm surprised.

 

[Rednog]

Makes sense to me. Those remaining 5.6 million have got to be the the most die hard fans the game has. Obviously anyone who's had that much kool aid is going to be interested in the expansion. Still though, 3.3 million is incredibly impressive.

Everyone I know who still plays it, pretty much plays it because their entire group plays WoW.
They've tried to jump to other games, but every time either someone doesn't like the genre or someone doesn't have a capable pc. They do it for a while and slowly one by one they all trickle back to WoW. At this point it's less about the game itself and more about the social ties they have.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Makes sense to me. Those remaining 5.6 million have got to be the the most die hard fans the game has. Obviously anyone who's had that much kool aid is going to be interested in the expansion. Still though, 3.3 million is incredibly impressive.

Everyone I know who still plays it, pretty much plays it because their entire group plays WoW.
They've tried to jump to other games, but every time either someone doesn't like the genre or someone doesn't have a capable pc. They do it for a while and slowly one by one they all trickle back to WoW. At this point it's less about the game itself and more about the social ties they have.

I think you could basically say that about any MMO. I wanted to keep playing SWTOR, but my friends all jumped ship to Final Fantasy XIV 2.0, so I went with them. I love FFXIV so it's not a huge loss, but I am sad that I had to leave the interactive story-telling presented in SWTOR behind, despite its other flaws.

 

[RJ 17]

I swear, I'm going to kill the friend that dragged me back into WoW. After over a decade away, I was convinced to pick it up a couple months ago. Come to find out that out of ALLLLLLL the servers out there, he just happened to pick one that is listed as "full"...meaning now that the expansion is out I have to wait in an hour+ queue to login.

 

[Atratzu]

It doesn't seem surprising to me that they're doing well after the Legion Launch. Everything I've ever heard makes it sound fantastic. I don't have time to play it, but the temptation is very real.

 

[Hawki]

Just wish they'd give us Warcraft 4 or that remaster of WC3 they hinted at.

It'd probably be the Starcraft 2 team who'd be doing that.

I remember seeing a quote from their lead saying that he's not totally sure where they plan to go after SC2 development ends, and that Warcraft 4 is on the table.

It'll be Team 1 if it happens. It's been stated that after Nova Covert Ops, they'll have a choice of:

a) Working on more mission packs

b) Developing StarCraft III

c) Developing Warcraft IV

d) Developing a new RTS IP

 

[Charli]

Not the biggest fan of some of their choices. The artifact grind dissuades you from swapping spec or character later on and item farming is a bit too... Random.
Not a fan of the scaling either, which has made normal questing fairly frustrating. If you have a tank spec, that's how you level. Having to quest through all zones instead of leaving one or two for an alt is kind of dumb. I'm already feeling burnout and don't remember half the quests I've done.

Some minor gripes about the ability pruning and glyph removal aside, I find the expansion decent. Not good, but passable.

That grind for offspec eases very very significantly as the weeks pass, your offspec will only be like at 80% efficiency while your main is at 100%. The artifact power knowledge really does ease it off.

I beta tested they accelerated the process for us so we'd get a feel for it, and to me it feels good on live. I have my 2nd upgrade tonight so my offspec (holy paladin) will jump 2 ranks in the Silver Hand just because one or two dungeons will push it up that much.

 

[Fappy]

All I know is that I can't stop playing this fucking xpac.

Too much fun. Please (do not) nerf.

 

[Hawki]

How would Warcraft IV work while WoW is still actively being developed for?

From a development standpoint, quite easily. Blizzard's RTS games are developed by "Team 1," while WoW is developed by "Team 2." Not the most original names, but point is, if Team 1 decided to make Warcraft IV today, development of WoW wouldn't be adversely affected by it. Oh, sure, people jump between teams, but that's about it.

From a contextual standpoint, Warcraft IV could be:

a) A prequel

b) An adaptation of the WoW storyline, or at least elements of it. You could probably easily fit Wrath of the Lich King into an RTS campaign for instance, and Arthas is the key plot point left hanging over from Warcraft III.

c) An AU/AR continuation. Warcraft has had alternate realities/timelines for quite awhile, so Warcraft IV could continue from Warcraft III, but not factor in WoW. Plenty of people play WoW but not the RTS games, and plenty of people have played the RTS games, but not WoW. So letting Warcraft IV be its own things avoids the obligation to play both series for people who only want to play one.

d) Set up Warcraft IV as an interquel between WoW expansions.

e) Set Warcraft IV far in the future, beyond a logical point for WoW to end. Son of the Wolf has arguably already set a precedent for this, given its time jump into the future in its epilogue.

Speaking personally, I prefer option c. I've followed the story of WoW, but not played it much - not too much a fan of the gameplay, far more of an RTS guy. So I figure Warcraft IV doing its own thing would be the best bet for people who don't necessarily enjoy both MMO and RTS gameplay.

 

[Samualwallow]

As a tank (or dps) at a competitive level you will always (always) take the 0.5% main spec effective gain over offspec gain.
Tanks that already have great effective health will always directly benefit from increases since it just makes the remaining margin for error smaller. Dps competing for rankings or spots will take any advantage.

At the average level it doesn't matter tho, where training your playstyle still has more effect than gear increases.

For me as a tank it just means Ill wait with upgrading offspec untill Im no longer designated as main tank for the guild.

 

[elvor0]

Makes sense to me. Those remaining 5.6 million have got to be the the most die hard fans the game has.

Well it's not like all 5.6m of them are going to have been playing since the beginning and many of them are at different points or doing different things. The game still has new players coming in as older ones drop out. Plus before Legion launched the /western/ population was somewhere around...2.6, the rest were in china where the game wasn't sub to play until very very recently. Like 3 weeks ago.