StarCraft 2 Topples Original Titles's Lifetime Sales in UK, Analysts Predict US Commercial Response

August 2, 2010 11:00 AM

After one week of availability, StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty has swarmed the competition, fighting its way to the top spot on the UK sales charts, according to physical sales data released by GFK Chart-Track.

Although its initial success was expected given the anticipation attached to the "first in a trilogy" sequel, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has already hit another sales milestone. According to a report on MCV, GFK Chart-Track claims that Blizzard's latest title has surpassed "lifetime sales" of the original game in the series after only five days, within the UK. StarCraft was released in 1998. Total units sold within the region for StarCraft or StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty were not revealed.

Following its release last week, US analysts predicted sales of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty could be as high as 6.5 million units by the end of 2010. According to Gamespot, Signal Hill's Tom Greenwald suggested "5-6 million units this year" for the highly-anticipated title were "highly achievable." In the same report, Colin Sebastian from Lazard Capital Markets used his crystal ball to estimate the RTS could sell 4.5 million units through September and reach 6.5 million units by the end of the calendar year.

Speaking to USA Today, Morgan Wedbush shaman Michael Pachter estimated StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty could sell five million copies within the next two to three months. Using our own sophisticated prediction algorithms--a dartboard with potential unit sales written on it--our guess is that StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty will sell "oodles and oodles."

Xav de Matos

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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code-e255

 reply
August 2, 2010 11:11 AM

And lifetime sales of the original was... ?!
- marmite
  
   reply
  August 2, 2010 11:25 AM
  
  Probably not that big in the UK. I don't remember it being a big deal at ALL when it came out. In fact I vaguely remember it not getting particularly good reviews in the print press here.
  - st4rdog
    
     reply
    August 2, 2010 11:47 AM
    
    Yeah, none of my friends ever talked about it in high school. Diablo was probably way more popular.
    - BornAcorn
      
       reply
      August 2, 2010 3:47 PM
      
      I think even Total Annihilation was more popular here.
- XAVdeMATOS
  
   reply
  August 2, 2010 11:54 AM
  
  GFK did not release that data.