"World of Warcraft" seems to have been around since the dawn of video gaming. With the recent release of the "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor" expansion it would be interesting to see if the old girl still has any legs. Turns out she still does... given the well-documented server problems surrounding this expansion's release. Now we're beginning to get an idea of just how popular the old girl still is.
According to a press release sent out by Blizzard today, the "Warlords of Draenor" expansion sold more than 3.3 million copies in its first 24 hours, and sent the game's subscriber base blowing past the 10 million mark.
By way of comparison, in August Blizzard said the subscriber base had fallen to 6.8 million. The MMO was already beginning to see a resurgence of players as the expansion approached; Activision's Q3 earnings release said it had grown back up to 7.4 million as of Sept. 30.
"World of Warcraft's" previous expansion pack, "Mists of Pandaria," also saw a subscription increase to more than 10 million in 2012, although from a much closer 9.1 million prior to its launch. "World of Warcraft's" peak number for subscribers is when it hit 12 million players back in 2010.
Blizzard stated that the new, 10 million subscriber figure represents "growth across all major regions," including North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. The "Warlords of Draenor" expansion has officially launched today in several more regions, including South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, so that 10 million number should be on the rise once again.
