14 DAY TRIAL // An analyst working for Lazard Capital Markets has revealed that, according to internal figures, the sales performance of the recently launched Mists of Pandaria expansion for the MMO World of Warcraft has been significantly lower than that of previous expansions, including last year’s Cataclysm.
Lazard estimates that Mists of Pandaria has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies during its launch week, which is about 60 percent down when compared to Cataclysm.
The analysis firm has acknowledged that it has no way of tracking the sales that Blizzard is creating digitally via Battle.net, but believes that they are not enough to balance the sales equation.
Traditionally, each new expansion for World of Warcraft has managed to sell better than its predecessor and the core game release, setting a new record for the series.
A clear decline for Mists of Pandaria might be a sign that World of Warcraft is no longer attractive to players at a fundamental level and that there’s almost nothing that Blizzard can do to resurrect interest.
World of Warcraft reached a peak subscription number that was over 12 million and is still the most played MMO that requires players to pay a monthly fee to access it.
However, the game has lost players over the last few years and many now believe that Blizzard is thinking about ways to move the title to a free-to-play infrastructure if the losses continue.
Cataclysm has seen overall sales of 3.3 million units.
Mists of Pandaria has introduced an entire new continent for gamers to explore and a new race, the Pandaren, to play as.
The Monk class has also been opened up and the rest of the line-up has received a number of tweaks to their skills and abilities.
Blizzard itself has not offered any information on the sales numbers for Mists of Pandaria.