Seeing as how Half-Life 2 (PC/Steam Exclusive) sold 6.5M copies and Skyrim is the fastest selling title in Steam's history: you have to wonder what the platform breakdown is.

http://games.on.net/article/14492/Skyrim_Ships_10_Million_Copies_-_Smashes_Steam_Sale_Records

Quote: "Bethesda have let us know that as of today, the acclaimed role playing title has now shipped 10 million units across all three platforms. According to the press release, that figure represents "approximately $650 million in retail sales since its release on November 11".

To put those sales figures in perspective, Bethesda claim that in North America the PC version "outsold all other PC games by a factor of over three to one" in the month of its release."

At any rate we're showing Bethesda that PC gamers love their games, they've always supported the community with great mod tools. I'm hoping this sends a strong message to other publishers and studios that this kind of support can pay off bigtime.

I have spotted 2 threads before yours saying the same thing. I probably missed 5. :shrugs:

The total software sales up until Dec. 10th are over 1.2 million on PC, over 2 million on PS3, and over 3.5 million on Xbox 360.

I believe steam does not release their sales numbers ?

Bad journalism. Bethesda couldn't even know if Skyrim outsold other PC games because they don't have the digital sales figures to Battlefield 3 (which has outsold Skyrim in physical PC sales as well as total sales claimed by EA), or Modern Warfare 3. And I haven't seen where Bethesda claimed they've made $650 million off their retail sales, which is an impossible figure. They'd have had to have sold 10 million copies at $65 each to make that figure, yet they haven't sold 10 million copies, they've only shipped 10 million copies, and the average sale price is probably around $50 a copy, maybe less.

Correct. It's even in the publisher agreement that you can't release them. You, as a publisher can include those figures in total sales, but you can't provide any kind of breakdown that would let people figure out exactly how many were bought through Steam. That means VGChartz and NPD both lack these numbers. I do wonder why VGChartz doesn't have a prominent disclaimer. Maybe they get paid by MS or Sony to keep it hidden.

Not sure why Valve doesn't release figures. Maybe to keep other big companies uncertain about trying to make their own Steam? We know they bring in billions every year since they do post revenue.

Also, PCU for MW3 on Steam was 90k. Skyrim PCU was 300k. Both games require Steam. Outselling MW3 by over 3 times? That's pretty nice.

But boys, never forget PC gaming is dying! If not, you'll traumatize Sony/Microsoft...

How insensitive from your side...

Regardless of the exact number of copies sold, this proves the PC version is worth the effort, and not everyone pirates it. So please Beth, please make better UI next time, DX11 support, 64-bit exe, etc.

So you think some how Steam users downloaded another few million copies of this game? I highly doubt the Steam numbers bump PC sales higher than the Xbox 360 sales or even much more than PS3 sales of the game.

Also outselling other PC games by a margin of 3x isn't very impressive when you look at what games were the highest sellers on the PC for the past 30 or so days.

You mean Battlefield, Modern Warfare, and Saints Row 3? Little tiny releases nobody ever heard of?

Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 have sold way more copies than Skyrim so far. At least if you include the console versions which should remind everyone that PC sales are not climbing out of the gutter any time soon even if Bethesda wants to hype up some record sales on Steam. Really, it's not that impressive.

Saints Row 3 isn't exactly as big of a name as you're making it out to be bunching it in with Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3.

Since you troll here as well I'll just copy my reply to here as well.


Total retail sales of Skyrim on the PC is over 1.2 million. That's not including digital sales.

Which comprises of 40-60% total sales for PC. One example is The Witcher 2. A few months ago CDProjeck said they have sold 1m copies of the game. But on VGChartz at that time it only shows 550k retail copies sold. Therefore it is safe to say for The Witcher 2 there are around 45% sales that's digital.

And for a "forced-steam" game like Skyrim, the percentage of digital sales can only be higher.

So it is safe to say the digital sales of Skyrim is much more than 1.2 million. Probably 50-60%(1.2m to 2m) of the total PC sales.

And don't forget, PC games don't have to pay royalties to consoles companies. And the profit margin of digital sales is 70% as opposed to the less than 30% of retail(not including console royalties).

Just count the numbers and see it yourself which platform brings more profit.

I guarantee they bump it over PS3. Possibly even with or more than 360.

You're not a PC user so you don't get this, but Steam is HUGE. It's a major thing. It's not some insignificant digital publisher. They bring in billions every year. I would say 2/3rds of my PC gaming friends buy half or more of their games from Steam. I would not be surprised at all if Steam outdid retail sales 60:40. Basically everyone I know that plays PC games has Steam, and most of them buy the majority of their games with it.

And don't forget, a sale on PC is worth more to a publisher / developer than a sale on either console.

No MS/Sony licensing fee(roughly $8 / copy).

Add onto that the very generous margin Beth gets for a digital sale on Steam and it quickly becomes apparent that in the case where the numbers are close, PC version makes the most money.


Modern warfare 3 had forced Steam use like Skyrim. MW3 PCU = 90K. Skyrim PCU = 300K. Safe to say Skyrim outsold by 3x.

Battlefield 3 has sold more than Skyrim. As I said, the claim that Skyrim has outsold other PC games is impossible to make, and if Bethesda made it they should slap themselves and be ashamed. Did EA phone them up and tell them how many copies of Battlefield 3 they sold through Origin? Did ActiVision phone them up and tell them how many copies of Modern Warfare have sold? Bethesda has a history of shamelessly lying to hype their products.

I'd be happy only with the 64 bit .exe. Bethesda could have that detail...although if they take them more than a week to release only a LAA-enabled .exe (still unreleased BTW....), I better not imagine how much it'd take for that.

Although I'm fairly sure it musn't be that much complicated to do it...right?

Stop parroting the MW3 lie. MW3 is a Steamworks title, which means it needs Steam to run.

Max playing it at once was 90K since its release. Skyrim got 300K. Use math.

BF3 is a different beast. It will be interesting to see which one does better over the long haul.

They already announced they are patching in 64 bit support actually, which is great news...because I'm sure when I have dozens of mods running sometime near year I'll need all my ram instead of what's available now.

Well I'm quoting VGChartz on actual physical sales of games. Sorry if you're so pumped up over a "claimed" record in which they don't release numbers to. Like I said before, BF3 and MW3 have sold WAY more copies overall than Skyrim. While I love the game to death it's just a bunch of hype from Steam and Bethesda which the PC [censored] can't get over. I know very well what Steam is and how big it is. I've been using it since CS(the original Counter-Strike not Source).

How does any of this make me a troll? It just sounds like you're butthurt over what I had to say.

What they said is only LAA, not a true man 64bit exe.

And don't forget the 2 thread limit of CPU. Wish I had bought 2600k instead so I can over clock it.

MW3 couldn't have outsold it. Go look up the Steam PCU figures. Unless millions of people bought MW3 and then didn't bother playing it?

You're making a pretty basic logic failure here. They're both Steamworks games.

Also, Vgchartz is a horrible website. Please use NPD instead. There have been instances in the past where VGchartz was shown to have hopefully coincidental "errors" with their numbers.

NPD is a lot more professional / respected.

...But not including Half-Life 3.

Gaming has been growing. Steam itself is growing. There are more major games on Steam and more Steam-only games. Many of the big games from the last few years that you'd expect outdid Skyrim probably did, but they didn't do it exclusively on Steam. Skyrim is apparently the best combination of hyped game, popularity of Steam, and popularity of gaming so far, if you also decide that "best" is judged by the first month of sales. When you explain it that way, it shows how arbitrary and random an achievement this announcement is.

Still, go Beth.

The fact that so many of us bought it on Steam proves that Steam wasn't necessary. Loads of us chose not to pirate.

edit: More than half the thread so far wasn't there when I clicked reply.

Also no distribution fees, no store space rental fees, and they get the money from sales at the end of the month rather than at the end of the fiscal quarter.

CoD relatively doesn't do too well on PC, it's a black sheep on the platform. Still, peak users doesn't tell the full story. Battlefield 3 has outsold Skyrim yet it never had as large a concurrent online user count.

Didn't speak a word of a lie. See previous response.

Did you not catch the part of me saying if you include console sales BF3 and MW3 have spanked Skyrim. MW3 has become mainly a console selling game since Modern Warfare was so popular and it looks like Battlefield is following suite. Both sites are fine. Whether you prefer one or the other doesn't discredit what I'm saying.

Next time when you quote a figure and want to use it as the basis of an argument, please make it clear.

"1.2m units sold(physical)" and "1.2m units sold(total)" have a vastly different meaning.

Wait until six months later. Console and PC markets are quite different in terms of logarithmic sales drop-off. Console sales are very heavily weighted for day one / midnight launches / standing in line. The sales very quickly plummet.

PC sales start off slightly lower, but drop off much slower.

And I think the market has finally realized you can't completely shaft the PC crowd and destroy a franchise because you want better console sales / "Call of Duty's Audience." Those were Bioware's stated goals going into Dragon Age 2.

Result being that PC version of DA:O outsold all three versions of DA II, and it holds to this day.

ED: To address above I bellieve we're talking PC market here. And there Skyrim outsold MW3 for sure. I think I saw four friends out of 80 playing MW3 after launch. After Skyrim a good half were playing that.