World of Warcraft Sells More Than 8.6 Million Copies

Gamasutra is reporting that World of Warcraft has sold over 8.6 million copies to date, bringing in an estimated revenue of $258 million since 2004. Of course, that's not counting the $15 that 11.5 million players are forking over each month. Someone continues to get filthy rich.
Blizzard's World Of Warcraft has sold a spectacular 8.6 million copies to date, according to NPD data provided to Gamasutra.

Following the revelation that The Sims 3 sold more than 800,000 copies in its first month at U.S. retail, Gamasutra followed up with NPD to find out how well WoW -- perhaps the only retail competitor to The Sims series over the past few years -- has fared.

The NPD Group rolled up multiple SKUs of the massively popular PC online game and its expansion packs since its November 2004 launch to arrive at the 8.6 million figure.

No information on average sale price across all versions was provided. But presuming $30 for each unit sold (the core game currently retails at $19.95; expansion packs and compilations for as much as $39.95), it amounts to as much as $258 million total from U.S. retail alone.

The statistics provided by NPD included the base World of Warcraft, plus the Collectors Edition version, the expansion pack-bundling Battle Chest, and the two standalone expansions: The Burning Crusade and Wrath Of The Lich King.