This year has been fantastic for video games, with several "largest" or "fastest" ever records being broken. Billions of hours of gaming content were viewed on YouTube and whole companies were created out of hit party games. World of Warcraft's Shadowlands now joins those major winners, having become the fastest-selling PC game of all time, according to Activision.
World of Warcraft has been with us for the past 16 years. Part of its success is its ability to continually adapt and provide content that is interesting for players, but that's not to say it always shakes out that way. Some players treat the campaigns as if they are simply in the way of a good fight. However, the Shadowlands expansion is different in a way that can't be ignored.
That seems to be part of why Shadowlands has become the fastest-selling PC game of all time—its ability to suck you into a story and provide the goods at the end of it. According to a report from VG24/7, the expansion sold 3.7 million copies on the first day of its release. The previous record-holder was Diablo, at 3.5 million copies.
That same report claims that Blizzard announced that Shadowlands brought in more players than at any point in the last decade. Additionally, the number of subscriptions reached its highest number in a decade in both the East and West markets. As if that weren't enough, player time in-game has doubled since last year.
All of this means great things for World of Warcraft. It's not every day that you get to claim the title of "fastest-selling" anything, let alone "fastest-selling of all time." The big question for Blizzard and the WoW community should be, "where do we go from here?" When a game is released with that much buzz and positive reception, the next iteration could be seen as a flop if it's not done right.
Of course, when it is done right, it can become both "fastest-selling" and win the Ultimate Game of the Year. Time will tell where Azeroth goes from here, but for now, things are looking bright.
Source: VG24/7