Mists of Pandaria sells 2.7 million in first week

Pandas have proven popular. World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria expansion sold 2.7 million units in its first week on sale, boosting the game's global subscriber base to over 10 million users, Blizzard Entertainment announced today.

Mists of Pandaria launched on September 25, and went on sale in China on October 2. Sales figures from this region were not included in the overall tally. However, Blizzard Entertainment claimed Mists of Pandaria helped spur "growth across all major regions."

The debut of Mists of Pandaria was far from the best World of Warcraft expansion launch. Initial expansion The Burning Crusade moved 2.4 million units in 24 hours, with Wrath of the Lich King selling 2.8 million copies during its first day, and Cataclysm moving a series-best 3.3 million on launch day.

As Blizzard Entertainment had predicted in August, Mists of Pandaria helped increase World of Warcraft subscription figures. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game's global userbase surged by 900,000 users from the 9.1 million players reported two months ago.

Now that Mists of Pandaria is out the door, the World of Warcraft development team at Blizzard Entertainment is working on the game's first post-launch content update. The company will share further details on this "in the weeks ahead."

Beyond a new game update to Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard Entertainment confirmed in March that it was already planning the next two expansions for World of Warcraft. Additionally, despite offering a quasi-free version of the game, Blizzard has previously said it has no intention to switch to a fully free-to-play business model, insisting the company is happy with its $15/per month subscription plan.

Mists of Pandaria is set on the new continent of Pandaria and focuses on the Pandaren as well as the monk player class. The expansion pack will also increase the player level cap to 90.