Diablo III, given its anticipation and that it's the first Blizzard game in two-years, was bound to be commercially successful. But few would have ever predicted the sales numbers that would soon follow its glorified—and somewhat controversial—release.
Blizzard has announced that within the first day of launch Diablo III sold 3.5 million copies, which is barring the 1.2 million Annual Pass promotions that were given out. But it doesnt end there. The entirety of the first week's sales have brought in an additional 2.8 million units upping the total to a whopping 6.3 million copies of the game sold in its first seven days.
6.3 million is a sizeable chunk of The Sims' 16 million which has kept it the all-time best-seller for a number of years. What's even more surprising is that Diablo II was only able to total 4 million units, a number that Diablo III has already achieved in its first week.
It's no wonder that the servers have been wrought with issues. Blizzard was expecting the game to be popular, but maybe not this popular.
The real question is how much of an impact the unstable first week will have on lifetime sales. Diablo III is a Blizzard game, so it will be constantly updated with content (come on PvP!) and balance (Barbarians need some love). If the development team can overcome the challenges on the server end, and bring some additional play value to the hardcore playerbase, this is a game that can easily head into the realm of eight-figures before all is said and done.
