World of Warcraft shows no signs of slowing down

The latest expansion to the “World of Warcraft” franchise sold more copies in 24 hours than most PC games sell throughout the course of their life.

More than 3.3 million people bought “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm” in its first day of availability – making it the fastest selling PC game of all time, according to publisher Activison-Blizzard. (The previous recordholder, not surprisingly, was the last “WoW” expansion – which sold 2.8 million copies in the 24 hours.)

More than 10,000 stores worldwide had midnight launches for the game, but this installment was also the first that was available digitally at the same time it hit retail outlets. Activision did not break out how many of the 3.3 million sales were digital versus brick and mortar.

“WoW” remains one of the gaming industry’s most profitable and successful titles. Currently, more than 12 million people around the world subscribe to the game. Historically, that number has grown with each expansion pack.