Blizzard sold 3.5 million copies of Diablo III in the first 24 hours, the , and another 1.2 million players received the game for free as part of a World of Warcraft Annual Pass promotion. One week after launch, more than 6.3 million players had joined the fray--not counting players in Korean Internet game rooms, where Diablo III also achieved a record share of play time.

There are, of course, a couple of obvious reasons why Diablo III was such a hit: It had a lot of hype surrounding it, and a lot of anticipation, coming 12 years after its predecessor. But allow me to suggest a few other, less obvious reasons for Diablo III's sudden success:

Instant Availability

Diablo III's record sales are a testament to the power of digital distribution. Before launch, players could pay for the game, download the files and install all the necessary patches. Anyone who got swept up in the hype could plunk down their money without getting up from their desks and know that the game would be ready to play on launch day. This wasn't just a pre-order, it was a pre-launch. Console makers would be wise to include similar mechanisms in their next generation of hardware. (And yes, the launch itself was a mess. Blizzard says it's sorry about that.)

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