World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is the fastest-selling PC game ever

News
By published

A new (after)life for WoW

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
(Image credit: Blizzard)

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is now the fastest-selling PC game in history, according to Blizzard.

That fact is impressive enough on its own, and even moreso when you consider that Shadowlands is the eighth expansion for a 16-year-old MMORPG. Blizzard's announcement states that it sold 3.7 million copies of the expansion in its first day on the market, which beat out Diablo 3's previous sales record of 3.5 million copies. Yes, Blizzard pointing out the fact that it just outsold its own long-standing record is a quiet flex, but when you've earned it, you've earned it.

The Shadowlands expansion itself isn't a one-off surge in attention, either. Blizzard's figures reveal that players have spent more time playing WoW so far this year then they have at any point in the last 10 years, and the game had its highest monthly players for an expansion launch period in the same timeframe. In other words, WoW is as big right now as it's ever been since the Cataclysm days back in 2010.

Video games in general have seen an explosion of popularity ever since lockdown orders started rolling out around the world earlier this year, so it's not surprising that it's been good for World of Warcraft too. That said, players do seem more genuinely excited for Shadowlands (and all the new stuff around it, including a massive overhaul to the leveling system) than they have for many previous expansions, so it definitely isn't all just the pandemic boost.

Read more about how Shadowlands' "level squish" makes World of Warcraft more accessible than ever.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.