Blizzard Entertainment announced today that as of the first 24 hours of Diablo III’s release, more than 3.5 million copies had been sold, setting the new all-time record for fastest-selling PC game. That number does not include the more than 1.2 million players who received Diablo III as part of signing up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass promotion.
Altogether, more than 4.7 million gamers around the world were poised to storm Sanctuary on day 1 of Diablo III’ s release – representing the biggest PC-game launch in history.
As of the first week of the game’s availability, that number had already grown to more than 6.3 million. The above figures also do not include players in Korean Internet game rooms, where Diablo III has become the top-played game, achieving a record share of more than 39% as of May 22.
Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment said:
“We’re definitely thrilled that so many people around the world were excited to pick up their copy of Diablo III and jump in the moment it went live. We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support.”
“Regarding today’s announcement, we recognize that setting a new launch record is a big achievement,” Morhaime continued:
“However, we’re especially proud of the gameplay feedback we’ve received from players worldwide. We’re pleased that Diablo III has lived up to players’ high expectations, and we’re looking forward to welcoming more players into Sanctuary in the days ahead.”
Diablo III went live on May 15, with more than 8,000 retailers throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau opening their doors to players at midnight or concurrently with the local release time in celebration of the launch.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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