Blizzard previously announced that this first expansion set for World of Warcraft sold through nearly 2.4 million copies worldwide in its first 24 hours -- more than any other PC game in history had sold within an entire first month of availability. With approximately 3.5 million copies sold through, The Burning Crusade has now established the new one-month record for PC-game sales.
“We’re thrilled about the overwhelming response that we’ve received for The Burning Crusade,” said Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment. “We have worked hard to build upon nearly every aspect of World of Warcraft with this expansion, and it’s gratifying to see that players and reviewers are enjoying the new content.”
Amazon.com reported that it received more preorders for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade than for any other PC or console game ever, and Wal-Mart® also recorded similar record-breaking numbers for The Burning Crusade. According to Gary Severson, senior vice president and general manager at Wal-Mart, “Not only was The Burning Crusade the top-selling item in our electronics department the day it released; it had the best day-one sales of any PC-game launch in our company’s history.”
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is Blizzard’s first expansion for its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. It adds an extensive amount of new content to the game, including an increase in the level cap, complete with new spells, abilities, and talents for players to acquire as they advance their characters; huge new outdoor zones and dungeons for players to explore after they journey through the Dark Portal into the shattered world of Outland; two new playable races; flying mounts; a new character profession: jewelcrafting; and much more.
Following the initial launch of the expansion on January 16, Blizzard held a highly successful open beta test in Korea and then commercially released The Burning Crusade for players there on February 12. The company is currently working with its partners to localize the content into Simplified and Traditional Chinese for mainland China and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau and release the expansion in those regions as soon as possible.