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World of Warcraft: Shadowlands drove record PC revenue in November

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands drove record PC revenue in November

The latest expansion for World of Warcraft, Shadowlands, brought in a lot of money last month.

That's according to research firm SuperData, which reports that the new content helped drive a 22 per cent increase in PC digital spending in November. Unsurprisingly, World of Warcraft was the highest-grossing title of the month, coming in ahead of the usual suspects, like League of Legends, Dungeon Fighter Online and Crossfire.

Following its launch, Blizzard said that Shadowlands sold more than 3.7 million copies on its first day, the highest Day One sales for a PC game ever. Admittedly, that title was stolen from Shadowlands shortly after by CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077, which GI.biz pegs at having sold 4.72 million units on PC. No doubt, that title will be appearing close to the top of the rankings next month!

Shadowlands brought in 50 per cent more in revenue than the previous World of Warcraft expansion, 2018's Battle for Azeroth, while it brought in 34 per cent more users.

Overall, digital games brought in $11.5bn during November. This is the highest revenue has brought in in a single month ever and is a 15 per cent increase year-on-year. As already staid, PC revenue was up 22 per cent for the month, while console was up by 24 per cent and mobile clocked in a nine per cent increase.

SuperData reports that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War sold 5.7 million units digitally for the month, a seven per cent increase on previous franchise record holder, 2018's Black Ops 4. Meanwhile, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Valhalla shifted 1.7 million copies, 50 per cent more than predecessor, Odyssey. Ubisoft has said that Valhalla brought in twice the number of Day One users as that game and was its biggest PC launch to date.

On the more indie side of things, Among Us apparently boasted half a billion monthly active users last month. Of the revenue generated by Innersloth's multiplayer smash hit between August and November, 64 per came from PC, but last month only three per cent of the game's users were on this platform. This is likely because the PC version is paid for – admittedly, only $5 – while the mobile editions are free-to-play. No doubt Among Us' launch on Nintendo Switch might help the game bring in some more money, too.

Here were the Top Ten grossing digital PC games for November 2020:

1. World of Warcraft, Blizzard
2. League of Legends, Riot Games
3. Dungeon Fighter Online, Neople
4. Crossfire, Smilegate
5. Fantasy Westward Journey Online, NetEase
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Activision
7. World of Tanks, Wargaming
8. Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Ubisoft
9. Roblox, Roblox
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Activision


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.