Electronic Arts said that, based on its own internal estimates, Battlefield 3 has "sold through" five million units in the first week of global availability. The company claims that this is due in large part by critic's reviews averaging above 85 on consoles and above 90 on PC - according to Metacritic. I'm not sure I’d agree with that conclusion (how much stock do gamers really put into reviews these days?). EA also said that word-of-mouth from gamers is also driving sales Battlefield 3. They cite more than 2.5 Million "likes" on Facebook and 200,000 "follows" on Twitter as evidence of that. Whatever the reason, Battlefield has managed to hit a milestone that EA is proud of.
To its credit EA also acknowledged that some players experienced what they called "intermittent disruption of online services due to high volume" even as they touted internal numbers on usage. So far, EA says that Battlefield 3 players have managed to execute 73 million savior kills, 48 million revives and have managed to destroy 67 million vehicles while playing online.
While it is unlikely that Battlefield 3 will be able to best rival Activision's Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 when it is released later this month, EA should be proud of its retail success.
