August 5, 2010 by Paul Curtin
It’s been a week since Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty was released and Activision Blizzard Inc. is proudly declaring its sales numbers with StarCraft II selling over 1.5 million copies in just the first 48 hours. After only two days on the market in North America and Europe, StarCraft 2 has become the fastest selling RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game in history, and one of the best selling PC games of all time.
Although 1.5 million isn’t Call of Duty numbers here in the States, that 1.5 million doesn’t account for sales numbers from Asia, where the original StarCraft is still widely popular and star players of the game are treated like professional athletes who play games in-front of packed stadiums all while being broadcast live on television.
Blizzard’s original StarCraft has sold over 12 million copies since being released in 1998, but the game wasn’t initially a huge success when it was released, it took positive word of mouth to fuel sales. With a strong first 48 hours and positive reviews flooding the internet, StarCraft II is on track to become even more popular that the original. It just proves that Blizzard can do no wrong and is single-handedly keeping the PC gaming industry alive in today’s awful economy.
