WOW: Burning Crusade scorches 3.5 million

When Burning Crusade was released on January 16, gamers turned up in costume for midnight launch events across the world. The expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft sold 2.4 million in the first 24 hours and can now add another 1.1 million to its first month's sales figures. The regional break down works out as more than 1.9 million sold in regions that play on North American realms, almost 1.6 million in Europe, and more than 100,000 in Australasia. Burning Crusade was also released in Singapore and Thailand.

The subscriber base for World of Warcraft has now surpassed a massive 8.5 million worldwide. Blizzard Entertainment's president, Mike Morhaime, commented, "We're thrilled about the overwhelming response that we've received for The Burning Crusade. We have worked hard to build upon nearly every aspect of WOW with this expansion, and it's gratifying to see that players and reviewers are enjoying the new content."

The expansion pack added a new region; an increase in the level cap for characters; new spells, abilities, and talents; two new playable races; and a new character profession.

Blizzard released the game in Korea in February and is currently working on localizing the game into Simplified and Traditional Chinese for future release in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.