For the first time since 2012, a new World of Warcraft expansion didn’t do as commercially as its predecessor. At Activision Blizzard Fourth Quarter 2022 Financial Resultsthe company said, “early Dragonflight sales have not reached the level of previous expansions.”
It is unusual for a franchise for a new World of Warcraft expansion to fall short of or even surpass the sales of previous expansions. 2020’s Shadowlands Sold over 3.7 million copies This surpassed Battle for Azeroth in 2018.that development Sold over 3.4 million copies It was a franchise record at the time.
In 2016, Legion sold 3.3 million copies on its first day, matching its previous record.have to go all the way back to 2012 Pandaria Mist To find the last expansion that didn’t match or sold less than the previous one.
Activision Blizzard doesn’t provide sales numbers for Dragonflight, but we do know it’s lower than Shadowlands’ 3.7 million units. However, Activision Blizzard noted that it “offers substantially more expansion content than ever before”, and that subscriber retention after launch in the West is stronger than recent World of Warcraft expansions. Blizzard also said that the mobile title Warcraft: Arclight Rumble continues to “make good progress through regional testing.”
We gave World of Warcraft: Dragonflight a 7 in our review and stated: A little silly. “
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over 6 years of experience in the games industry and has bylines for IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
