It’s pretty evident that the more people talk about the game, the better it’ll do in sales. But according to Google, there’s a direct correlation between sales and page clicks that can accurate predict best-sellers.

According to “Think With Google” (via Destructoid), roughly 84 percent of video game sales can be predicted by how much people are searching for information about it.

As their metrics point out, people search for video games information often enough that certain factors pop up with regularity:

• Most potential buyers are searching for DLC information
• Compared to desktops, mobile searches for games increased from 5 percent (in 2010) to 90 percent (2011)
• In a year of lead-up, searches for a game can increase by over 600 percent just two months before launch

Overall, Google predicts that a game generating 250,000 page views (or “clicks) around the internet in 10 months before its release will sell anywhere between 2 million to 4 million copies in four months. That probably leaves out obvious outliers such as Halo or Call of Duty—it would be interesting to the results for something like Enslaved or L.A. Noire, for instance.

Source: Think With Google