Lots of StarCraft 2 Sold in the First Two Days

By Marcus Yam
published

Sales rush!

No one should be surprised that StarCraft II sold a staggering number of copies during its first two days on the market.

Blizzard today announced that Wings of Liberty achieved a day-one sales milestone of more than 1 million copies sold worldwide. The game went on to sell a total of more than 1.5 million copies in its first 48 hours, setting the record for fastest-selling strategy game of all time.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released simultaneously in North America, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on July 27. More than 8,000 stores throughout the world (3,000 of them owned by GameStop) held midnight launches.

"We launched StarCraft II in 11 different languages and on 5 different continents because we wanted to make sure as many players as possible were able to log on and play on day one," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're pleased that so many people around the world have already picked up a copy of the game, and we look forward to welcoming even more players to Battle.net in the weeks and months ahead."

While StarCraft II's numbers are certainly most impressive, much bigger game launches have happened on multiplatform games. Last year, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold a staggering 4.7 million copies on day 1.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • brianmoz
    i would like to know how much money they are making in relation to production costs, its good. thee are too many fps
    Reply
  • stevesauce
    So much for no LAN play. :D
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    ... this game is old good things and new feel combined in a very beautiful way... nostalgic, jet new... world would be a better place with good sequels, reboot's, remakes like this...
    Reply
  • Kaiser_25
    i agree, it was tastefully done, looks good with the same great SC1 gameplay, except that last level is a doozy!!
    Reply
  • About 100M USD http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starcraft2/news.html?sid=6269369
    Reply
  • xxsk8er101xx
    The 100m was for world of warcraft - they updated the article and it was an error.
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    Impressive.
    I may buy SC2 when there is a considerable community modder base and user maps.
    I actually dislike competitive strategy games, but both SC1 and WC3 (which I still play) are still fun with user made maps. Team and competitive tower defence, RPG's, rickrolling, Footman vs. Grunts, Footmen Unleashed etc. all make WC3 one of my favourite games, even today (and my collection of xbox 360/ps2/ps3/pc games is quite large, yet it's WC3 that holds a special place in my heart). The only thing I regret is that the first time I went online with WC3 is that I didn't click the 'custom maps' button, and didn't until a couple years later.

    I'd pay $50 for just a new version of WC3 (don't change the game play, just allow for even more customization, multi threading, wide screen support, access to hosting bots from Blizzard etc.).
    You know, spend 12 years and just remake the same game, just like SC2. :)
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    anamaniacImpressive.I may buy SC2 when there is a considerable community modder base and user maps.I actually dislike competitive strategy games, but both SC1 and WC3 (which I still play) are still fun with user made maps. Team and competitive tower defence, RPG's, rickrolling, Footman vs. Grunts, Footmen Unleashed etc. all make WC3 one of my favourite games, even today (and my collection of xbox 360/ps2/ps3/pc games is quite large, yet it's WC3 that holds a special place in my heart). The only thing I regret is that the first time I went online with WC3 is that I didn't click the 'custom maps' button, and didn't until a couple years later.I'd pay $50 for just a new version of WC3 (don't change the game play, just allow for even more customization, multi threading, wide screen support, access to hosting bots from Blizzard etc.).You know, spend 12 years and just remake the same game, just like SC2.... WarCraft 3 HD...
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    DjEaZy... WarCraft 3 HD...+1 to you. :)
    Reply
  • sp00
    I like the game, but battle.net is way too tight on security. You can't change you screen name and you can't reset your achievements. A big thread about this is already on the Blizzard forum.
    Reply