Battlefield 3 pre-orders hit huge number, roughly comparable to COD Black Ops’ pre-order popularity

By Eric L. Patterson, News Editor
Posted on September 7, 2011 AT 10:45am

THE BUZZ: EA CFO Eric Brown announced today that pre-orders for Battlefield 3 have hit around the 1.25 million mark, which is better and faster than any previous Battlefield game in the same amount of time.

If you’re wondering how that compares to the Call of Duty franchise—pretty good actually. That number is “roughly comparable” to where Call of Duty: Black Ops was in the same timeframe according to analyst firm Cowen & Company. (Black Ops went on to sell 20 million copies.)

Because of that, the firm has upgraded their first-year sales estimates for Battlefield 3 from 8 million to 11 million.

EGM’s TAKE: These numbers are good news for both EA and DICE, as it seems all of the hard work to get the first-person shooter community to really take notice of Battlefield 3 is indeed paying off.

Source: Games Industry

Eric L. Patterson got his start via self-publishing game-related fanzines in junior high, and now has one goal in life: making sure EGM has as much coverage of niche Japanese games as he can convince them to fit in. Eric’s also active in the gaming community on a personal level, being an outspoken voice on topics such as equality in gaming and consumer rights. Stalk him on Twitter: @pikoeri. Meet the rest of the crew.

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