4.7 Million Copies of Fallout 3 Shipped to Stores
UK sales tracker says game has already outsold Oblivion and surpassed total sales to date of all prior Fallout games combined.
Bethesda's crowing this morning about record sales of its post-apocalyptic role-playing games Fallout 3 (PCW Score: 90%). Probably justified. UK sales checker Chart-Track says Fallout 3 has already outsold every prior game in the franchise combined. That sounds slightly more illustrious than it is, because of course all those older Fallout games (except for what-was-Interplay-smoking spinoff Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel) were strictly computer-based. Console sales routinely trump PC sales nowadays, and of course there's that thing about the market exploding since Fallout and Fallout 2 arrived in the late 1990s.
But at least 90 percent illustrious, with Chart-Track stating the game has already outsold Bethesda's Oblivion by 57%, pulling in sales of 55% on Xbox 360, 28% on PS3, and 17% on PC.
Bethesda dropped a note this morning stating it's shipped approximately 4.7 million units of Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, "representing retail sales in excess of $300 million." The game went on sale at midnight on October 28 in North America, as some 2,000 retailers held special late night launch parties. I'm not sure if that's a record midnight opening for a video game, but if it's not, it's got to be close. Also: That's 4.7 million units shipped to stores, not necessarily sold-through. We'll see best-guesses at the sell-through numbers shortly from NPD.
Matt Peckham