World of Warcraft hits 11.5 million subscribers

Blizzard Entertainment has revealed that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion has helped its lucrative MMO World of Warcraft hit the 11.5 million subscriber level.

The expansion itself sold more then 2.8 million copies in the first 24 hours on sale, the all-time PC sales record, and has now notched up over 4 million copies in total.

"We're pleased to welcome the new and returning players who have helped World of Warcraft reach these new milestones, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and support that the game's global community has continued to show," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard. "We look forward to providing all of them with an excellent entertainment experience for a long time to come."

And Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop, added: "Not only is Wrath of the Lich King still doing well, the base World of Warcraft game and the World of Warcraft Battle Chest [in the US] are performing better than last year. That type of traction is very impressive for a game that is going into its fifth holiday season and speaks to the enthusiastic player base Blizzard Entertainment products have."

Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion to World of Warcraft. The first expansion, The Burning Crusade, was the previous PC sales record-holder.