There is a saying that the only certainty in life is death and taxes, but there is another certainty that comes in the world of gaming, which is that there will be a new entry into the Madden NFL series every year and that regardless of how much or little they change in the game, it will be a smash hit due to the name and the licenses. It looks like Madden NFL 13 will be no different, as the latest installment in the series has moved what should be considered a super impressive 1.65 million copies in the first week alone. Insanity, right?
That number — which is a massive number — sets a new record for the Madden NFL series on this generation of consoles and quite honestly, for a game not Halo, GTA, Mass Effect or any other blockbuster series, it is quite amazing. What is equally impressive is the sheer number of players who took to the digital gridirons online, as EA recorded 1.4 million players took the game online. That is a 31% increase in week one online play from the previous installment. There was a whopping 24 million games contested online in that first week.
The figure that EA gave to put that into perspective is this; that is the equivalent to 47,000 regular NFL seasons in just seven days. On Labor Day alone there were an average of 3,000 games of Madden started every minute. That is just downright insane. There were more metrics released by EA, including that 702,000 unique users access the enhanced Madden Ultimate Team mode. Fans opened more than 2.6 million packs and competed in more than 2.2 million challenges. With just a week on the shelves, it is very clear that Madden NFL 13, even with its problems, is still a fan favorite and that the series continues to strengthen.
[Source: EA]
