Mists of Pandaria, the fourth World of Warcraft expansion, has been available for a little over a week now. Today we’re finding out that Mists of Pandaria sold 2.7 million copies in its first week on shelves, which definitely isn’t bad, especially for an expansion. However, when held up against the sales of Cataclysm, World of Warcraft‘s third expansion, Mists of Pandaria sales are a little underwhelming.
Cataclysm sold 3.3 million copies in its first day, compared to the 2.7 million copies Pandaria sold in its first week. It would seem that World of Warcraft players aren’t as excited for this particular expansion, and there could be a number of different reasons for that. First and foremost, it could be that Pandaria is failing to grab players’ interest in the same way Cataclysm did. Cataclysm, remember, involved the destruction of Azeroth at the hands of a dragon named Deathwing, which to some is probably a bit more exciting than discovering an ancient race of panda bears.
World of Warcraft could also be suffering temporarily at the hands of Guild Wars 2, which was released at the end of August. Hype for Guild Wars 2 was incredibly high during the lead up to its release, so it makes sense that some World of Warcraft players would leave the game for a little while to go see what Guild Wars 2 has to offer.
Regardless of the reason behind the lower number, Blizzard is still happy with Pandaria’s week one sales, and anticipation for this latest expansion was enough to push World of Warcraft’s active player count over the 10 million mark once again. Indeed, 2.7 million sales in the first week is nothing to stick your nose up at, it’s just interesting to see that Cataclysm managed to net so many more sales when it launched. What’s your take on the whole situation?
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[via Eurogamer]
Mists of Pandaria launch sales lag behind Cataclysm is written by SlashGear.
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