Blizz successfully shaped the narrative of “Record Sales” for SL’s by couching the data within the Pre-Sales segment, which I don’t think even existed in the TBC days when Blizz sold over 1 million copies of TBC in a SINGLE DAY.
Heck, I can’t even find exact data on SL’s sales, other than “Highest Pre-Sales of any Expansion in WoW History!”
Yeah. comparing sales in a category that didn’t even exist is legit Blizz…
Back in TBC days, sales were so crazy Blizz gleefully announced how many copies they sold, cause the number was huge. Now, they do their best to spin some smoke and mirrors, knowing 95% of their playerbase doesn’t know the first thing about finance or economics, so they can pull this off.
Add to this the fact that retailers are going down like flies, everyone’s quarantined or scared to go out, and yeah, pretty easy to see how pre-sales would hit record highs.
What I don’t see is Blizz telling us SL’s has the highest overall sales or subs of any expansion, nope, not gonna go there…lol
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I want to see the Refund Stats for SL.
Preorders, cool, how many of those Refunded.
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I was wondering about that announcement. Briefly noted it somewhere and it didn’t add up, when at first glance they make it sound like SL’s crushed all sales records. lol
Thanks OP, this makes much more sense. Tsk tsk Blizz…
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I buy SL and I like it :d
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Can we get a refund? I’d turn mine in immediately if we can
Too funny, so SL’s “Shattered Sales Records” in a category that didn’t exist in TBC and has grown exponentially with the transition to digital.
I was there in TBC days. Everyone went to the store and bought a hard copy, no pre-sale.
And no doubt COVID keeping everyone locked up all 2020 is what made it happen. Laughable…
Is it influenced by our current circumstances where consumers have returned to what they consider a ‘safe’ gaming bet?
Certainly appears to be that way in my own wider life (colleagues and friends interested).
With that said WoD also had record sales upon its release and reception was actually very positive. We know how that played out… SL however is looking like they’ve thought things out.
I think the most important factor is how they are intending to develop the game from here onwards.
I’ll take conspiracy theories for 500 Alex.
Where’s your proof that Blizzard has done any of what you’re claiming here? Gut feelings isn’t proof by the way.
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They said the same thing with BFA. What matters is how many stick around. I suspect the pandemic is helping them right now also.
Prepare for the white knights pal.
It’s a 16yo game buddy. Why would you even expect it to do as well as its first expansion?
Not only that, but it’s 16 years old and still makes the monthly PC game revenue top 10 list and its the only mmo on there.
So does it really matter how many copies where sold?
BfA broke the sales record on release, which included pre-orders. They were very vocal about this.
So the lack of talk about how well Shadowlands has sold is merely a sign that it didn’t sell as well as BfA.
I almost grabbed the refund when they offered it. Glad that I didn’t. This is fun.
I get that facts do not fit your narrative… BUT, they did not compare SL pre-sales sales to TBC sales. The actual quote is “Franchise engagement is at its highest level for this stage ahead of an expansion in a decade” ~ Blizzard COO Daniel Alegre.
If you are going to rampage, at least to 30 seconds of research.
No it’s not. Dungeon Fighter Online and Westward Journey Online is right there above it, and both are MMO’s as well.
ht tps://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/worldwide-digital-games-market
My bad, I am unfamiliar with that game. I assume it isn’t popular in the U.S.?
It isn’t, mostly cause it’s 2D sprite based side-scroller beat-em-up. That, and the LOADS and LOADS of microtransactions up it’s wazoo, which is a nasty animal on its own which I’ll spare you the detail of. Very fun game nonetheless with AMAZING class designs by the way. Like, every single class is a blast to play. It’s absolutely huge in S.Korea and popular enough in China as well.
It was quite possible to preorder vanilla and BC. You just didn’t do it through Blizzard. You always had to go through a 3rd party. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t bother sharing their preorder numbers with Blizzard.
For what little it’s worth, I preordered vanilla from Amazon on Nov 4, 2004. It wasn’t released until Nov 23.
initial sales only indicate how successful they were on the hype and nothing more.
the number of people active and subbed after 6 months and then after 1 year will let everyone know how people liked the xpac, and they will never release that info as its probably scary to the players to see.
Also, correct me if im wrong here, but isnt the presale xpansion usually is like $50-$60, but this time around they sold it for $40 and then made you pay the sub separate for the base xpac. Big part of it for me was “whatever its $40 ill get my use out of that even if its a terrible xpansion” Im sure many other people locked up looking for entertainment and virtual socialization just bit the bullet paid that $40 and hoped it would be a solid xpac.
This is all on the same tier as those horrific F2P games from 2006-2010 that would brag about 500 bazillion players because its free and they only count registered accounts not active players.