The latest installment in the SimCity franchise, simply titled SimCity, has sold more than 1.1 million units in the first two weeks, EA announced. This makes it the biggest SimCity launch of all time.
Roughly 54 percent of those sales have been digital versions of the game, downloaded through EA’s Origin service.
“SimCity had a great weekend with sales strong across both North America and Europe, adding to overwhelming demand at launch that has us tracking well beyond expectations for the game,” said Peter Moore, Chief Operating Officer for EA. “SimCity is one of the storied brands in gaming, and Maxis delivered a game re-envisioned and engineered for the online age.”
Although the game had a difficult launch, which is still fresh in our minds, gamers have set new records for peak users on the Origin platform. Players have also logged more than 15 million hours of online gameplay, build 5.7 million cities and constructed 780 million buildings. Players have built enough road and railroad tracks to circle the globe more than 40,000 times, according to EA.
Maxis have recently offered a free game from EA’s portfolio to those affected by the problematic launch, providing the game is registered on Origin before March 22nd.
Source: EA
I wonder what the total would have been if EA hadn’t blocked refunds on the DD version, and if more people new their rights about getting refunds full stop!
Plus just because so many people pre-ordered and got it on release day, doesn’t mean it was a success, I bet the majority regretted it. Many still do now that they are finding that the game engine is inherently broken, and that EAxis lied about so much!
I was thinking of a follow up title that said “SimCity Disappoints More Than 1 Million People after Launch.”