Many game publishers would be thrilled after selling 2.7 million copies of their latest title in a month, but Blizzard is not your average video game publisher. In their latest press release, Blizzard announced some impressive week one sales for their first Diablo III expansion pack, Reaper of Souls, with sales topping an incredible 2.7 million units. As a proud owner of this excellent expansion pack myself, I couldn’t be happier, and I would argue that it is well-worth the somewhat steep asking price of $40. That being said, let’s put on our business hats and see what kind of week one revenue the D3 division is staring at! Hit the link below for the details!
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Tops 2.7 Units Sold
Got your finance calculator handy? Let’s crunch some sales figures: 2.7 million units at $40 a pop (rounded up for sanity) comes out to a whopping $108,000,000 in top-line revenue. Now if you’re not familiar with business terms, something important to note is that revenue is not profits – we still have to account for all of the costs that are associated with this title, as well as with general fixed costs that come into play as well. Since we are outsiders to Blizzard the best we can do is provide a slightly qualified guess: after all of the expense/cost dust settles, I would expect Blizzard to walk away with at least a 10-15% profit, which means in this first week they have pocketed anywhere from $10,800,000 – $16,200,000 (10 & 15%). And remember, this is just WEEK 1. Pretty awesome stuff, huh?
The real question is how long can this level of sales sustain itself, as at some point it will start to taper off. My guess is it will start to fall within this first month, but I could be wrong; I would need to do a little more research before making that slightly qualified guess. Regardless, pretty darn impressive sales figures for a very entertaining (and addicting) expansion pack.
SQ is your one-stop shop for business analysis on the video gaming industry, so stay tuned for more! Also if you want to check out Blizzard’s official press release, you can find it right here. Stay classy, SQ Nation!
I was not even 3 minutes into this expansion when I nabbed my first legendary drop – methinks this may have been “planned” to get new players super excited and hooked for the next 100 hours (it worked). Anyone else get this lucky?