Diablo III Sells 3.5 Million Copies In First 24 Hours

You didn’t exactly need to be a gaming industry analyst to know that Diablo III would be a big hit for Blizzard even with all of the launch problems, but now we know how much of a success it was.

Yesterday, Blizzard announced that within the first 24 hours of Diablo III being available, 3.5 million copies had already been purchased–and that’s not even counting those who got the game via the Annual Pass, which Blizzard says moved another 1.2 million copies.

Diablo III sales stayed strong after the first 24 hours as well, with Blizzard reporting that an impressive 6.3 million had been sold worldwide by the end of the game’s first week of availability.

“Regarding today’s announcement, we recognize that setting a new launch record is a big achievement,” Blizzard CEO and cofounder Mike Morhaime said in a statement. “However, we’re especially proud of the gameplay feedback we’ve received from players worldwide. We’re pleased that Diablo III has lived up to players’ high expectations, and we’re looking forward to welcoming more players into Sanctuary in the days ahead.”

Even with all of Diablo III‘s launch problems, I’d say that the game is certainly worthy of all of the success. It may still be rough around the edges, but Blizzard managed to deliver a hack-‘n’-slash that is as delightfully addictive as its predecessor.

What do you think? Are you still enjoying Diablo III, or were you unable to get past all of the launch problems?