Wrath of the Lich King breaks all previous records at GameStop

by James Egan Dec 2nd 2008 at 7:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, MMO industry, News items

We weren't kidding when we said Wrath of the Lich King would be the biggest MMO expansion the industry has ever seen. This is reaffirmed in a recent article at Ars Technica written by Ben Kuchera, who writes, "This isn't a game as much as it's a juggernaut of money-making power..." Kuchera sources info from Massively's sister site WoW Insider, who got their hands on a leaked internal email from EB Games detailing just how significant Wrath has been, from a business standpoint at GameStop. Kuchera breaks down a few of the highlights:

The week of the game's launch was the biggest sales week of the year.

It was also the biggest sales week ever, outside of the previous year's Christmas sales.

The Wrath launch was the biggest launch in GameStop's history.

Wrath of the Lich King set a new record for presales.

Wrath day-one sales exceed that of any game they've ever sold.

See Kuchera's piece over at ArsTechnica for more on the record-breaking World of Warcraft expansion, and Mike Schramm's article at WoW Insider about Wrath of the Lich King's retail success.

One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!

Tags: arstechnica, blizzard, eb-games, expansions, fantasy, gamestop, mike-schramm, mmo-industry, world-of-warcraft, wow-insider, wrath, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Related From Massively

Alganon's State of the Game address
4 hours ago
OGPlanet announces the launch of Lunia Chronicles
6 days ago
Checking up on Fallen Earth: One month later
27 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

BaronJuJu said on 7:04PM 12-02-2008

And we are shocked at this news? :P

Seriously though, good job Blizzard.

KingJames said on 10:25AM 12-03-2008

The Burning Crusade pushed me away from WoW over time as it disconnected people from the game world but with WOTLK everyone is back in the old world and the scenery reminds me of old world WoW. This expansion made me fall in love with WoW again after TBC ruined it for me. Kudos to Blizzard for not dropping the ball on this expansion as MMO's are only as good as their last expansion.

Evi said on 1:16PM 12-03-2008

TBC didn't ruin the game for me, but I'm definitely having more fun with Wrath. I'm really enjoying the return to more realistic design, moving away from TBC's spacey, out-there colors.