3.3 million copies of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm were sold in one day

3.3 million copies of World of Warcraft game were sold by Activision Blizzard in its first day on the market. "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm," launched December 7, surpassed the record set by the previous "World of Warcraft" release in November 2008, said the company.

The multiplayer online game has 12 million subscribers around the world, providing the company with steady and recurring revenue. Nearly half of those subscribers are in Asia, and the other half are in western countries, analysts say.

"Assuming the positive trends extend beyond the first 24 hours post-release, we expect stable to slightly higher subscriber levels for WoW in North America and Europe," Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian said in a research note.