Cataclysm sells 4.7 million in one month

Just over a month after it was released worldwide on December 7, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has set another record. Developer-publisher Blizzard Entertainment announced this morning that the third expansion for the massively multiplayer role-playing game has sold 4.7 million units during its first month of release, 3.3 million of which were scooped up on the first day. Currently, World of Warcraft has more than 12 million subscribers worldwide.

According to Blizzard's internal sales figures, Cataclysm has set a new sales record for the company, eclipsing the prior record-holder, 2008's Wrath of the Lich King. The latest expansion raises the game's level cap to 85 from 80, with its titular disaster reworking much of World of Warcraft's existing world as well as adding several new areas. The add-on also adds a new playable race for each of the game's factions to the mix: the technological goblins have joined the Horde, while the cursed Worgen have sided with the Alliance.

This year has been a strong one for Blizzard. In July, the Irvine, California-based studio released Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, the first installment in a trilogy of releases for its sci-fi real-time strategy franchise. The game achieved sales of 1.5 million within 48 hours of release, eventually selling 3 million units worldwide by the end of September.

Blizzard has not yet begun talking about the next expansion to World of Warcraft, even if it believes that add-ons to the MMORPG could continue "as long as the Internet is up." However, according to what purports to be a leaked release calendar, Blizzard intends to launch Cataclysm's follow-up during the April-June quarter in 2012.

Cataclysm is currently available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea, as well as the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.