14 DAY TRIAL // Valve is notorious for keeping kinda quiet when it comes to two things: clear release dates and sales figures. Especially since they launched their digital download platform, the well known Steam, the company has rarely told videogamers how much it sells. Now, in an unusual turn, it's telling us how much it has sold since it basically started making AAA titles.
Half Life, which has just turned ten, has sold 9.3 million units in retail since it launched, while the Opposing Force expansion moved 1.1 million units, and Blue Shift sold 800,000 copies. It's a very big number for a PC game, but understandable considering the significance of the title and the influence it had on all the first person shooters that followed.
Counter-Strike, initially a mod for Half Life, became a stand alone product and sold 4.2 million units; then, Condition Zero and the full remake Counter-Strike Source added 2.9 and 2.1 million units in sales. There's also an Xbox port which managed to move another 1.5 million copies.
Half Life 2, launched in 2004, moved 6.5 million copies, and Half Life 2: Episode 1 only managed to sell 1.4 million units in retail stores. This is roughly the moment when Valve began launching their games simultaneously on Steam and in stores.
The Orange Box, which included the entire Half Life 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2, sold 3 million units on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Valve has not revealed how many digital sales it had managed through Steam but Gabe Newell recently said that the digital sales of Valve titles were set to outgrow those at retail outlets.