14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD console charts have come and gone, but the sales analysis groups have also revealed their stats about the PC gaming market and how it fared during the month of June. To almost nobody's surprise, the game that reigned supreme was Electronic Arts' The Sims 3 title.
The game, which is exclusive to the PC, has managed to move over 820,000 copies in the United States alone. Don't forget that the best-selling console game was Prototype, which managed to move “only” 419,000 copies in the same territory. But the sales of the third iteration of the life simulator are even bigger, considering the fact that the digital downloads haven't been taken into account by the NPD group.
Also, if we consider the proven track record of its predecessor, The Sims 2, which still manages to sell a lot of units every month, EA is going to be laughing all the way to the bank for quite some time with The Sims 3.
Other heavy hitters in the month of June are the usual suspects, like The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, and various World of Warcraft iterations. Other interesting presences are Spore: Galactic Adventures and Empire: Total War. You can clearly see that the anticipation from fans of the StarCraft franchise is reaching critical levels as, in order to prepare for the launch of the sequel, which might happen this year, the Battle Chest edition is selling a lot of copies.
Prototype is putting up a decent show on the PC platform also, but other titles like SimCity Box or reel Deal Slots Adventure have beaten Activision's game. Here is the complete sales chart from the NPD group.
1. The Sims 3 (EA The Sims Studio, Electronic Arts) 2. The Sims 3 Collector's Edition (EA The Sims Studio, Electronic Arts) 3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (EA The Sims Studio, Electronic Arts) 4. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Blizzard Entertainment) 5. World of Warcraft Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment) 6. Spore: Galactic Adventures (Maxis, Electronic Arts) 7. World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) 8. Spore (Maxis, Electronic Arts) 9. Empire: Total War (The Creative Assembly, Sega) 10. StarCraft Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment) 11. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard Entertainment) 12. Reel Deal Slots Adventure (Phantom EFX) 13. Civilization IV: Complete Edition (Firaxis Games, 2K Games) 14. WarCraft III Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment) 15. SimCity Box (Maxis, Electronic Arts) 16. Diablo Battle Chest (Blizzard Entertainment) 17. The Sims 2: Apartment Life (EA The Sims Studio, Electronic Arts) 18. Prototype (Radical Entertainment, Activision) 19. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY Edition (Bethesda Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks/2K Games) 20. Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Terminal Reality, Atari)
Overall, the PC gaming is still going strong, even though this is the summer season, when people aren't really that focused on video games but more on relaxation.