Bethesda today announced that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim shipped 7 million copies worldwide in its first 48 hours of being on sale.
To be clear, that’s 7 million shipped , not sold. Bethesda didn’t say exactly how many were sold, but they did say that roughly 50% of all shipped copies were sold, which puts the figure at around 3.5 million sold, give or take a few thousand.
“We are grateful for the fans’ response to Skyrim,” said Robert Altman, chairman and CEO of ZeniMax Media. “Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda Game Studios have crafted a very special game. Anticipation for Skyrim has surpassed any game in our company’s history, and we are pleased that sales and reviews have reflected the quality and hours of amazing gameplay it provides.”
Bethesda Games Studios director Todd Howard chimed in on the news as well, saying:
“Without a doubt, this has been our most ambitious project ever,” he said. “After over three years of development, we’re finally excited to get it into everyone’s hands.”
In other good news from Bethesda HQ, the company says that Skyrim broke records on Steam, pulling in 280,000 concurrent at its peak. By comparison, Activision’s blockbuster Modern Warfare 3 only pulled in around 70,000 concurrent users at its peak.
