StarCraft II Tops 1.5 Million Units In Two-Day Sales

Blizzard's StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty sold 1 million units its first day on sale and 1.5 million units in its first 48 hours -- which handily makes it the best-selling PC game of 2010, and according to the company, the new record-holder for the fastest-selling strategy game of all time. The game launched globally to much anticipation on July 27 in North America, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. According to the company's announcement, more than 8,000 store locations -- 3,000 of them GameStop stores -- held midnight launch events. "We launched StarCraft II in 11 different languages and on 5 different continents because we wanted to make sure as many players as possible were able to log on and play on day one," says Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. Analysts have predicted that StarCraft II will likely become one of its publisher's bestsellers, with as much as 7 million retail units of the game in Activision's first fiscal year, which ends in December. It could also be the publisher's most profitable; Janco Partners' Mike Hickey forecasts $350 million in sales for the publisher and $171 million in operating profit -- assuming a 45 percent operating margin, while Signal Hill's Todd Greenwald suggests a 50 percent margin. The original StarCraft, released in 1998 is itself widely considered to epitomize the best of the genre.