Left 4 Dead 2 Tops 2 Million Sold Copies

Valve has managed to release some really good and acclaimed games, but it's not known for a lot of releases. The famous Half-Life was released in 1998, but its sequel had to wait six years to be launched. However, this isn't the case at all with the Left 4 Dead series, as the game scored two iterations in two years. The first title proved to be so successful and gamers were so receptive to the concept, that the Source engine was once again put to use in less than a year since the original Left 4 Dead was launched.

And the enthusiasm for L4D was shown in the pre-orders for L4D2 that Valve announced in October to have surpassed three times those of the first game. "Left 4 Dead 2 is off to a great start with strong support at retail and great reviews from the press," Doug Lombardi, Valve's vice president of marketing, said. Those pre-orders proved to foretell impressive sales, and they were so indeed, as the game has managed to sell more than two million retail copies for the PC and Xbox 360. "Meanwhile the title has already been played by over 1 million Xbox LIVE Gold account holders, and news regarding Left 4 Dead 2 DLC 1 is coming very soon," Lombardi added.

The numbers were amassed in just two weeks, but Valve didn't provide any numbers regarding how many copies were sold through Steam, its digital distribution service, which is regarded as the number one in the business. Valve also declined to provide an exact number of total sales for the game. An exact sales figure is absent for the first Left 4 Dead as well, though Valve did announce in March that the title had sold over 2.5 million boxed units in stores.

The game doesn't stray too far from the original formula, as is uses the same engine, the same universe and follows a very similar cast. Once again, survivors of the outbreak must push through the horde of infected in search of a salvation that is always just out of their grasp. The game adds a few things as well, as it presents slightly sharper graphics, all-new infected, as well as melee weapons to the arsenal.