Diablo III sells 12 million in 2012

Diablo III sold more than 12 million copies throughout 2012, Activision Blizzard announced today along with its fourth quarter financial statement. The quarter was no slouch, either, with the usual success of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Skylanders Giants' powerful holiday retail presence.

Blizzard Entertainment's other big release this year, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, was the third best-selling PC title at retail. As of December 31 the heavyweight MMO maintained a player base of 9.6 million members, dipping back down from 10 million immediately after the expansion's launch. Its all-time high remains in 2010, at which point its global subscriber base exceeded 12 million.

The Skylanders dominion of figurines and games has made more than $1 billion in worldwide sales, and more than 100 million of the toys have been sold worldwide as of January 2013. Check out our preview of Skylanders Swap Force before your little sibling/annoying neighbor children/sweatpants-wearing collector friend get their grubby mitts on them.

Getting down to brass tacks, Activision Blizzard brought in $1.768 billion dollars in net revenue, up more than 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. Its net income grew by more than 250 percent from last year to $354 million.