World of Warcraft shifts 8.6 million units

With the immense popularity of World of Warcraft, I’m surprised to even see people outside when I look out of the window. Becoming a reclusive and trendy shut-in is now quite cool, and for that Blizzard is to be commended. Who’d have thought that such geeky nonsense would sell 8.6 million units?

That’s the figure touted by the folks at NPD, collecting all the sales data from the main game, its two expansions, and the WoW Battle Chest. Some number crunching suggests that Blizzard has raked in around $258 million on retail sales alone. That doesn’t even begin to consider how much the company has made from its $15 a month subscription fee. 

The general point of the story is this — Blizzard is making more money than you could realistically spend in two lifetimes.