Skip to main content

‘World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth’ is the game’s fastest-selling expansion

Cinematic: “Old Soldier”

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is an enormous expansion for Blizzard’s long-running online game, and the excitement surrounding all-out war between the Horde and the Alliance appears to be translating to big sales. The company has announced that Battle for Azeroth is the best-selling expansion in the game’s history.

Recommended Videos

In just one day, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth managed to sell more than 3.4 million copies, narrowly edging out 2016’s Legion expansion, which sold 3.3 million copies in its first day. Battle for Azeroth has been on sale for just over a week as of now, so we’ll likely see those numbers continue to grow.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth has a lower barrier to entry than previous expansions, as Blizzard recently abandoned its “battle chests” in favor of making all previous expansions and the base game free. This means that in order to enjoy Battle for Azeroth, all you have to do is purchase the expansion and a subscription to World of Warcraft. As six expansions had already released prior to the most recent one, it certainly makes entering the game for the first time easier.

Story quests and new areas are available in Battle for Azeroth right now, and additional content will be coming soon in free updates. The upcoming content includes the Uldir raid, which launches on September 4, as well as the cooperative Warfront mode, which will arrive “in the coming weeks.”

World of Warcraft has a reputation for being an all-consuming game, and players have shown their dedication since Battle for Azeroth launched. One player going by the name “Gingi” managed to hit the expansion’s level 120 cap just four hours after the expansion launched. We’re not sure why anyone would want to speed through a game like that, but we aren’t here to judge.

If you’re curious about whether you should pick up World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, stay tuned for our full review. We’ll also have guides available to help you through the game, just in case you find its new features to be overwhelming.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is available now on PC and Mac.

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
World of Goo 2 might just be the Nintendo Switch’s next must-own co-op game
A built structure in World of Goo 2.

When I sat down to demo World of Goo 2 at this year’s GDC, I noted to the developers on hand how surprising it was to see a sequel after so long. “It’s been, what? Ten years?” I said. I was very far off the mark: They noted that the original World of Goo launched in 2008. After playing a few levels (and having an existential crisis over time’s rapid passing), I’d find myself wondering how such an obvious slam dunk didn’t come sooner.

Like its predecessor, World of Goo 2 is a physics-based puzzle game where players craft structures from little, gooey critters. It presents a series of engineering challenges, as poorly built structures will topple under the weight of all those jiggly little pals. Rather than reinventing that concept entirely, World of Goo 2 adds some wild new ideas onto that stable structure that opens up its puzzle potential. The result is a chaotic co-op game that’s a perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch.

Read more
The best open-world games
The Witcher 3-Wild Hunt

Just like you probably enjoy getting to choose your own path in real life, you want to have the same freedom in your favorite video game. Open-world games like The Division 2 have only continued to grow in popularity since their release. 

While this genre of gaming can be a little intimidating for anyone without tons of experience in gaming, there are plenty of great open-world games to chose from. Ranging from first-person shooter games to RPGs and action-adventure titles, our list will have something for everyone.

Read more
These Activision Blizzard games need to come to Xbox Game Pass this year
Sekiro easy mode mod FromSoftware Souls games gameplay difficulty

In October 2023, Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and by the end of the year, the latter company's CEO had departed. Now, this will be the year where we’ll see how Activision Blizzard functions when fully integrated into Microsoft. The most immediate change for those who play games will likely be Activision Blizzard titles coming to Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s subscription service.

Microsoft and Activision have explained that because of the tribulations the acquisition encountered, it was impossible to have Xbox Game Pass additions prepared almost immediately after the acquisition, as it did with ZeniMax Media. In the coming months, I expect we’ll finally start to see Activision Blizzard games trickle onto the service, even if we shouldn't expect it from this week's Developer_Direct. As Activision Blizzard is one of the oldest game publishers out there, having released hundreds of games, there are plenty of titles to choose from. I’ve cherry-picked the ones I want to see most.
Diablo IV

Read more