Exclusive: World Of Warcraft's U.S. Retail Sales Total 8.6 Million NPD data released this week, via Gamasutra, reports that Blizzard has sold an astounding 8.6 million copies to date. Gamasutra wanted to compare the success of World of Warcraft to that of the previous sensation The Sims. So Gamasutra has continued to follow up on the research conducted by NPD. The Sims sold more than 800,000 copies at full retail US price in the first month after its release. The 8.6 million figures was reached by adding the multiple sku numbers for the wildly successful World of Warcraft PC game and included the sales of its numerous expansion packs since the game launched back in November of 2004. No average sales priced was released from the finding in the NPD Group’s report, so the total value or revenue can only be estimated. Assuming a $19.95 sales price for the base game and another $10.00 for at least one expansion pack (the price of each varies up to and including $39.95), let us use a modest $30 per gamer average. $30 multiplied by just the 8.6 million U.S. retail games sold totals more than $258 million in less than five years. Now certainly the operator transition in China has impacted negatively the user base Blizzard collects on each month. But Blizzard’s most recently released figures are 11.5 million subscribers; this is obviously in addition to the minimum earnings of $258 million in just U.S. retail sales. So if those are the sales numbers dare we look at the subscription earnings? We in the West pay Blizzard an average $15/month addiction fee. That’s HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS EVERY YEAR, that’s the Golden Goose. Guess Gamasutra can stop worrying about the comparisons with the Sims games. World of Warcraft is the massive leader in MMO market games, with no signs of there being a close second anytime soon.
