Blizzard Entertainment announced the ambitious expansion last year at BlizzCon, originally penciling in World of Warcraft's eighth expansion for October 2020. Shadowlands received a delay that pushed it to late November, however, giving Blizzard extra time to polish the experience. Despite the delay, fans still flocked to the new release in record numbers.
World of Warcraft's recently released Shadowlands offering takes place after the events of Battle for Azeroth, the game's seventh expansion. Most notably, Shadowlands adds in a whole host of fresh content for players to explore. Covenants represent one of the major new additions, along with a roguelike dungeon with the inclusion of Torghast, Tower of the Damned. The latest release also revamped World of Warcraft's leveling and progression systems, thus providing longtime fans with yet another reason to dive back in.
Fans have returned to Blizzard's fantasy world in droves. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is now the fastest-selling PC game of all time, according to a report from Diablo III, which sold an impressive 3.5 million units on its launch day.
World of Warcraft itself is breaking records in of player engagement, as well. Activision's report further notes that in the months ahead of Shadowlands' launch, WoW achieved and sustained its "highest number of players on monthly or longer-term subscriptions compared to the same period ahead of and following any WoW expansion in the past decade." Overall player engagement has maintained this momentum since the arrival of Shadowlands, too. Plus, player time spent in WoW has doubled year-over-year when compared to 2019.
Suffice it to say, publisher Activision Blizzard is doing incredibly well this year. In addition to World of Warcraft's continued growth, Call of Duty as a whole remains on the rise. During the last 12 months alone, for example, Activision's flagship shooter franchise raked in a staggering $3 billion.
And the team at Blizzard Entertainment has plenty more up its sleeve, of course. While fans are busy exploring all that Shadowlands has on offer, Diablo IV is currently in the making. Time will tell whether it's able to eventually unseat Shadowlands as top dog on PC.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is available now on PC.
Source: Activision Blizzard, Daniel Ahmad
