The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Sales A Lesson In Listening

The past few weeks several games have been released, each of the big names selling record numbers either in their own circles or in the greater scheme of things – what Bethesda Softworks release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's shipping of 7 million copies at launch tell us is we need to know the difference between shipping and selling. Just like a record label, a game developer keeps track of both the shipment numbers and the sales numbers on each of its games. While shipment numbers are an OK indicator of how well the stores across the country expect the game to sell, it's certainly not a perfect tell. If Skyrim does manage to sell all 7 million copies already shipped inside its first week of sales, it will have beaten Battlefield 3's five million copies sold in the same time period.

Just so we're clear on who has the biggest sales, now, take a peek at Modern Warfare 3. This game not only broke their own sales record like Battlefield 3 did, it broke the world record, coming in at 12 million copies sold inside the first week. Modern Warfare 3 was released three days before the release of Skyrim, and we're going to go ahead and bet that it wont be beat by the fantasy-based Elder Scrolls episode. The numbers shipped for Skyrim also appear to take into account Steam distribution which is a digital-only platform along with Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Windows PC.

This game has found a quick following on the dedicated fantasy lovers underground gaming circuit, with many players noting the massive amount of variety in the game's contents as unrivaled. You run around and kill dragons, summon spider, and collect weapons. What more could you want? That said, the whole experience is majestically beautiful besides. The game was released on the 11th of November and you can grab it now wherever fine games are sold for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Windows PC.

[via GamesBeat]