Diablo III Has Sold Over 14 Million Copies Blizzard Activision Q3 2013 report brings World of Warcraft stabilization, and Hearthstone release delayed to 2014

Diablo III

World of Warcraft

Hearthstone

StarCraft II

Heroes of the Storm

BlizzCon 2013

Diablo III has sold over 14 million copies across all platforms, and World of Warcraft has staunched the flow of subscribers for at least one quarter, from data provided in the Blizzard Activision Q3 2013 earnings report. Just a few days before BlizzCon 2013 provides an abundance of news about Blizzard's games, the latest quarterly report from Blizzard Activision gave a few tidbits of info. These include details from their press release, and from comments made by Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime during the earnings report conference call.The biggest event in the quarter for Diablo III was the release of the game on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. The console release of the game pushed total sales of Diablo III to over 14 million copies. The PC edition of Diablo III had sold over 12 million copies as far back at the end of 2012 , and sold moderately well on the PC throughout this year . With likely sales of over 1 million copies on the PC since the end of last year, that would put the PS3 and Xbox 360 Diablo III combined sales at around 1 million copies since the console release on September 3, 2013.Those console sales also boosted Blizzard's bottom line: Mr. Morhaime stated that the company ended higher in net revenue and and operating income for Q3 versus Q2, mostly due to the Diablo III console launch in September. With the Reaper of Souls Expansion coming to the PC and PS4 in 2014, he noted that Blizzard would be revealing more details about the expansion at BlizzCon.As of September 30, 2013, World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with approximately 7.6 million subscribers. That represents a drop of just 100,000 subscribers from the end of Q2 , with subscriptions nearly stable. That is good news for Blizzard, since the game had lost nearly 2 million subscribers total during the first two quarters of this year. Mr. Morhaime noted that there has been "increased engagement" since the 5.4 Siege of Orgrimmar patch landed for the game. Blizzard is continuing to invest heavily in World of Warcraft, with "significant and exciting new content" for the game coming in 2014.Hearthstone went into high gear during the third quarter, Mr. Morhaime said. "We've seen a great response from the community with the closed beta test, which kicked off in August. Hearthstone quickly became one of the most popular streaming games on Twitch, and we have been expanding the beta test to encompass more regions, and a wider group of players. We're continuing to work on polishing the game as we drive towards open beta testing."It looks like the release of Hearthstone has been quietly pushed back to 2014, despite the confident prediction that the game would be released in 2013 when Blizzard's Rob Pardo unveiled it in March . Hearthstone is now listed as one of the products in the pipeline that Blizzard has announced for a release in 2014. Given that the game is still in closed beta, less than 8 weeks from the end of the year, that is not a big surprise.The only mention of StarCraft II was a sales note: In North America, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game for the first nine months of 2013, based on data from NPD Group.The game formerly known ashas gone through "an extensive internal test" over the past several months, according to Mr. Morhaime. The game will be showcased at BlizzCon, and is now described as Blizzard's take on "free-to-play hero brawlers".Mr. Morhaime stated that BlizzCon 2013 was "another sold out show, with more than 20,000 attendees coming to Anaheim from more than 40 countries." The major sport spectacles there include the World of Warcraft Arena Invitational, and the global grand finals of the StarCraft II Championship Series. There will be plenty of announcements and news over this weekend from Anaheim. Here at, we'll cover all the Diablo III news in-depth, along with highlights of Blizzard's other franchises from BlizzCon.