Diablo 3 Tops World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, Becomes Fastest-Selling PC Game of All Time

The long-awaited Activision Blizzard epic moved more than 3.5 million copies during its first day of release. All told, the famed publisher has sold more than 6.3 million copies of Diablo 3. "We're definitely thrilled that so many people around the world were excited to pick up their copy of Diablo III and jump in the moment it went live," Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, said in a company release. "We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support." Regarding today's announcement, Morhaime added that Blizzard recognizes that "setting a new launch record is a big achievement." "However, we're especially proud of the gameplay feedback we've received from players worldwide," he said. "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." Activision Blizzard ATVI said that Diablo 3's sales figures, which are "based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners," make it the fastest-selling PC game in history, beating out one of the company's biggest franchises, World of Warcraft. Diablo 3 has also sold faster than the PC versions of Call of Duty. But the aforementioned sales figures include more than 1.2 million consumers who received the third Diablo game as part of a World of Warcraft promotion. (Activision handed out free copies to those who signed up for a year's worth of World of Warcraft gameplay.) That said, Activision Blizzard wanted it to be clear that while 1.2 million of the game's more than 6.3 million players came from the WoW deal, Diablo 3 did actually sell more than 3.5 million copies on the first day of release. This allowed Activision Blizzard to set a new sales record for Amazon.com AMZN. "Not only did Diablo 3 break the record for most pre-ordered PC game of all-time on Amazon.com, but it also shattered the record for best day-one sales for any PC game ever on Amazon.com," John Love, director of video games at Amazon.com, said in a company release. Diablo 3 did not, however, set a new record for GameStop GME. Bob McKenzie, GameStop's SVP of merchandising, referred to Diablo 3 as "one of" the company's biggest PC launches. Across all platforms, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is still the fastest-selling game with more than 6.5 million copies sold in the first 24 hours of its release. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ