Sales of the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion pack have been sluggish in comparison to previous expansion for the MMO, according to investment bank Lazard Capital Markets.
VentureBeat is reporting that Lazard Capital estimates that the fourth and latest expansion for Blizzard Entertainment's World Of Warcraft online game has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies at retail since its launch earlier this week. The previous expansion World of Warcraft: Cataclysm sold more than 3.3 million copies in the first 24 hours after launch. In 2008, the expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King, sold 2.8 million.
According to the report, in the past, Lazard said sales of Pandaria are down 60 percent from the previous expansion pack, Cataclysm. But these figures don't take digital market performance into account. This is a big issue in the report as digital sale are on the rise since 2010.
But according to the report, Lazard analyst Atul Bagga believes Pandaria's digital sales still will not add up to the sales numbers seen by previous expansions. We will not know for sure if the numbers have declined as bad as the report suggest in till the digital sales numbers are in.
Last month it was reported that Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft's subscribers shrank from 10.2 million to 9.1 million during the last fiscal quarter. Blizzard chief Mike Morhaime said at the time the loss of subscribers was due to stricter gaming restrictions in the Asia market and because of the age of the last expansion.
"Historically, we have seen usage decline towards the end of an expansion cycle," Morhaime said. "We saw a similar drop in subscribers in the months before [the Cataclysm expansion pack], followed by a substantial number of returning players around the Cataclysm launch. We're also seeing that a number of players took a break from World of Warcraft to play Diablo III."
What do you think of the new expansion? Why do you think the sales number may have declined? Comment below...
Watch the Pandaria trailer below...
