Madden NFL and Pokemon Both Sell Over 5 Million

Looks like the most sought after games this year are Madden NFL 07 and Pokemon Diamond as they both managed to sell over five million copies. Of course, the Pokemon sales figures are valid for Japan and the Madden NFL for the US.

While Pokemon covers a single platform, the Nintendo DS, and has been out for just three months following a September 28 release, Madden NFL 07 covers a range of six platforms, Xbox, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and of course PCs. So we could say that Pokemon kicked Madden's ass when it comes to sales. Madden also tops the sales classification for both PlayStation 2 and Xbox, so I guess Americans really love football.

Here's what EA officials had to say about Madden NFL 07 sales: "Madden NFL 07 is the must-have game for players to realize the full power of the new systems like the Wii, PlayStation3 and Xbox 360," said Todd Sitrin, VP of Marketing for the EA SPORTS brand. "EA's Tiburon Studio has once again set the bar for innovation and consumers have responded. This has been an amazing holiday season for Madden NFL 07." Long story short, EA got just what they wanted: MONEY.

The success of Madden NFL 07 is mostly due to the Xbox 360, and according to teamxbox, during the first week, Xbox 360 players unlocked more than 600,000 achievements and recorded more than two million hours of online game play on Xbox Live.