Exclusive: World Of Warcraft's U.S. Retail Sales Total 8.6 Million According to Garnasutra, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has sold an unbelievable 8.6 million copies to date, and it’s still growing everyday. No game to date has matched those kinds of numbers since the game “The Sims.” When “The Sims III” released and sold more than 800, 0000 units in the very first month, Gamasutra reported it straight from the NPD. Gamasutra wanting to scale the comparison between Sims III and World of Warcraft has been following up on the research. NPD group combined the many sku numbers of the incredibly popular World of Warcraft online game and included its expansion packs since it debuted in November 2004, totaling the 8.6 million figures. The average sales price they used was not provided in the NPD Group’s findings. But let us assume that each of the copies sold at the current lower retail price of $19.95; expansion packs vary in price up to and including $39.95; so let’s use $30/user as an average (albeit a low one). At 8.6 million copies that’s a total of over $258 million dollars from the U.S. retail market alone. Now you have to assume that the operator transition in the Orient most likely has diminished the gamer base total some. Still, Blizzard’s most recently announced total of 11.5 million subscribers in the company’s main money machine. (And that’s the reported number of subscribers, who’s to say it isn’t more?) At $15 dollars a month for the privileged to play the game here in the West, that’s hundreds of millions of dollars YEARLY to Blizzard earnings. I don’t see the sense in comparing World of Warcraft to Sims anymore, do you? World of Warcraft IS the leader in subscription MMO market, and with that kind of lead whoever could afford to catch them?
