The newest expansion for World of Warcraft – Cataclysm – launched just a week ago to much fanfare. Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the popular game, released day one sales figures today. Within 24 hours of launch, the game had sold an unprecedented 3.3 million copies… smashing records left and right. This means more than one out of four WoW subscribers bought the expansion within 24 hours of its release – making it the fastest-selling computer game of all time.

According to Mashable, “the iPhone 4 saw a paltry 1.5 million units moved in its first 24 hours; and only 2 million songs by the Beatles were sold during the entire week of that band’s iTunes premiere.” That shows you quite an interesting twist on just how many copies of the game sold on the first day.

Does these numbers really surprise you? The cinematic trailer – embedded above – received more than a million views during its first full day on YouTube. I’m told that the original teaser video for the expansion was released during BlizzCon 2009 – which fell during Gnomedex 2009. I later found out that more than half of our attendees sent their laptops and notebooks to the Blizz site to check out the expansion news while listening to speakers on our stage! This game is that popular amongst people of all ages, races and geek-levels. The fans are rabid – and rightfully so, I suppose.

I’ve never been a fan, you already know that. My assistant Kat is, though, and is in love with the expansion. She reports she’s only played about three total hours so far. She restricts herself to logging in on weekends if she doesn’t have other things (family stuff) going on. She well knows how easy it is to get sucked into game-playing when you’re supposed to be working!

Are you a WoW player? What do you think about Cataclysm thus far?

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Smashes Records

All of our gamer friends know that World of Warcraft Cataclysm release date is getting closer. Things around Azeroth will never be the same, but most players are excited about that prospect. It’s always good when a game shakes things up and makes them almost new again. It keeps players interested, right? There are lots of cool things going on to help promote the launch, and we’re happy to be taking part in a giveaway right here in our community.

Our friend Rubin and his team over at DiabloSpot have graciously donated some seriously cool items to give away. We will be doing two random giveaways – one begins today and the other will be next week! You have two chances to win, simply by sending a tweet. Your tweet must include @Chrispirillo, @diablospot and #Cataclysm in it. By sending that tweet between now and midnight on Friday night (October 29th), you are automatically in the running for this week’s prize.

This week, four lucky people will win Limited Edition Warcraft Trading Card Game Cards… each of which are still sealed in foil and were signed by the artist! At this point in time, there is no monetary value placed on them. I would definitely hold on to these if you win one… they could be worth some decent bank one day.

Are you looking forward to the Cataclysm? What do you feel will be the best change to the game? If you missed out on BlizzCon, be sure to check out the information that Rubin and the gang put up over on DiabloSpot – and don’t miss out on all the talk of Diablo 3.

Are You Ready for the Cataclysm?

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One of the live callers the other night is a professional World of Warcraft player. He and his team travel around the country playing in tournaments. In just one that they won first place, each team member won $5000.00!! I’m serious – five grand for winning a WoW tournament!

Since the team has no official name and are playing again at the upcoming BlizzCon, they wanted to know if they could name themselves after our Geeks site! Heck yeah they can!! Apparently the tournament will be broadcast live, with thousands of people watching.

Speaking of Geeks and WoW… we do have a group especially for WoW players and fanatics! There are 280 members of it at this point in time, and quite a lot of discussion, tips and tricks being shared in there. Be sure to stop by there if you’re a WoW player!

Good luck to you guys at Blizzcon. Sadly, I won’t be able to actually watch the tournament live, as it’s the same weekend as my Gnomedex convention. However, we’ll be pulling for you guys!

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How to Make Money Playing World of Warcraft: WoW!