Blizzard Ent.'s WORLD OF WARCRAFT’s second expansion, WRATH OF THE LICH KING, has sold more than 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time.
This eclipses the previous record of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in 24 hours, set in January 2007 by Blizzard’s first WORLD OF WARCRAFT expansion, THE BURNING CRUSADE. WRATH OF THE LICH KING was simultaneously released in North America, Europe, Chile, Argentina, and Russia on November 13; Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand on November 14; and South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18.
VARIETY posits that Blizzard made upwards of $100 million based on the U.S. price of $40 per unit.
Prior to the launch of WRATH OF THE LICH KING, WORLD OF WARCRAFT’s subscriber population had grown to more than 11 million players.
LICH KING did not come close to the all-time videogame records, however. Last year's Microsoft title HALO 3 sold 2.5 million in the U.S. alone on its first day. GRAND THEFT AUTO IV is believed to have sold more also, but publisher Rockstar only released the first-week totals of 6 million-plus.
