Switch Lights

The lights are on

What's Happening

Diablo III Breaks PC Sales Records

If you're playing Diablo III, you're definitely not alone. According to Activision Blizzard, the action-RPG has broken day-one PC sales records, selling more than 3.5 million copies of the game in 24 hours. And that's just the beginning.

When you include players who got the game as part of the World of Warcraft annual pass, that number jumps to 4.7 million players worldwide on the game's first day. Diablo III has sold more than 6.3 million copies in its first week.

"Regarding today's announcement, we recognize that setting a new launch record is a big achievement," said Mike Morhaime, Blizzard founder and CEO. "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."

Email the author , or follow on , , , and .

Comments
  • "We're pleased that Diablo III has lived up to players' high expectations." Actually no , it hasn't at all. Ignorant and arrogant developers :/.
  • f f ffff-- firrr--- firsss...
    ah... nevermind.
    Second! w00t w00t
  • Does anyone know when PvP will launch?
  • Good for them.

  • I picked Max Payne 3 over this... I'm sad now :(
  • I wish I didn't waste my money on this piece of crap.
  • Well... Holy ***. That's amazing for a PC game, probably because people are too busy playing to crack it. MY friend has been addicted since launch, it's all he can talk about. Oh well, I did the same with Skyrim, Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Origins.
  • I'll pick it up when they disable the always-online requirement...
  • Hopefully we can all set aside any anger about the launch problems now. There's no way a company can afford to buy/lease enough hardware to sustain that surge, the surge that will a month after launch be greatly diminished probably.

  • **Possible Spoilers!!** while I am happy for my purchase, and suggest others check out the game themselves before casting judgement, it did NOT in fact live up to my expectations. Pros TONS of polish on what they DO include, actual combat is tight and fluid, abilities (least ones you're allowed to have/choose) feel powerful, sound design is awesome, cinematics are still #1 in idustry Cons: Dated gameplay graphics/character models, startlingly abrupt and poorly "resolved" ending, but the worst of all...Diablo isn't even MENTIONED until like Act 3...so when you finally get to him/her it's like "meh, whatever. so i guess you're just the next demon to kill huh?". Act 2 is almost a copy/paste of Luet Golem from the first game but less interesting. The towns, while seeming at first to have more breadth than their predecessors are actually ghost towns will NPCs that say little and do nothing. All in all, fun but wondering what in the 7 hells they were working on for 10 YEARS? Must have been fine-tuning the mechanics of this game, cause it def wasn't making sure it was a complete and engaging tale of adventure and terror.
  • is this game good tho that is the question I've bought many games that should have been great and i have been let down on numerous occasions
  • Meh... It's decent. I mean if I knew what I was getting I might have just bought Diablo 2 again and modded it to unlock all the skills for my Necromancer as he leveled... and remove the attributes...and dumbed down the difficulty. And gut the pvp. Okay, It ain't worth 60 right now in my honest opinion until they patch in the RMAH we had to endure this *** DRM to have. And bring in the pvp. And the patch to fix the odd physics and texture bugs in Act 2 & 4... And write a story that isn't wholly predictable and pathetic on all levels. Well I'll be damned, I'm pulling another DA2 on myself ha. Least this time I won't end up with a paperweight.
  • If I were to say this is surprising, I would be lying. Diablo 3 was easily one of the most anticipated games of our generation, so I would have expected nothing less from the sales numbers.
  • PC gaming sucks and is dead and needs a 5000 USD PC to run anything properly
  • im sure they are counting all those free copies they gave away to WOW players.
  • Records of sales don't record sales from digital downloads of which make up a majority of PC sales for the majority of titles. Other than Blizzards site D3 was not available for digital distribution. So, in short, this record sale has very little merit as records for sales of other games are not accurate in any regard.

    Those numbers are substantial though, and it's possible it could be the best-selling PC title, but, one must in keep in mind that there are over 40million steam accounts. Most probably aren't active. Another portion probably only buy certain games. But there's a reason Steam is the #1 digital distribution platform and that Gabe Newell is the richest man in the gaming industry.

    So, I find little merit in this report and my distaste of such headlines which make it seem there is merit is only further compounded with my dissatisfaction of how D3 did not live up to my expectations. Between terrible writing to the completely different and entirely non-diablo skillsets for class's, on top of which the loot tables aren't remotely as enjoyable as D2:LoD, I find it particularly irksome that Blizzard thinks these sales indicate satisfaction. They do not. They indicate the success of the previous Diablo's, the one's developed by a team which had no part in D3. There's a reason D3 has 2 1/2 stars on AZ and it's not just because of the servers.
  • PLEASE release on console.
  • Well done Max Schaefer and Runic Games. You really created something spectacular. Just a shame Blizzard gets credit for your creation and now screwed Diablo up completely.
  • GOOD FOR THEM!

1 2 3 Next