StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty may have just achieved the most successful game launch of the year, becoming the fastest-selling title of 2010. An estimate states that 1.8 million copies were sold on the first day in the Americas and Europe, including both digital and physical sales. This figure does not include players in Korea however, because it is hard to see how many purchases of StarCraft II have been made, given the fact that World of Warcraft subscribers get StarCraft II for free there.

These figures have been calculated by VGChartz, which also predicts that a staggering three to four million Koreans may be playing StarCraft II on day one. In the other territories it is said that 31 percent of the sales, that is 570,000 units, were digital purchases from Battle.net. Obviously this means that 69 percent of StarCraft II copies were sold via brick and mortar retailers.

Furthermore, in terms of territories, 57 percent of the purchases were done in the Americas, while the remainder 43 percent was done in Europe. It is hoped that Blizzard will soon release an official statement that would give some insights regarding the game's performance in the Asian markets. We can say, at the moment, that StarCraft II is in the position to break World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King's record in day one purchases. In its first day, the expansion pack managed to move 2.8 million copies worldwide.

Comparing this launch with the one of this year's most successful console game, Red Dead Redemption, the PC platform wins by a large margin. Rockstar's latest epic managed to sell around 1.2 millon copies across the Americas and Europe in its first day. It is quite important to note that there are some interesting factors at play here, though. Red Dead Redemption did not have the massive hype of StarCraft II, nor the brand power of Blizzard. On the other hand, StarCraft II has not been reviewed by any press outlet at the moment, making all the sales based on its predecessor's pedigree and developer's reputation.