Mass Effect 2 also may have had an impact on play of Modern Warfare 2, evidenced by the first significant drop in Modern Warfare 2 play in January beyond its slight downward trend through January 25. After Mass Effect 2’s release the Modern Warfare 2 curve appears to be on a new downward trend; however, we will need more time to pass to see how long this trend lasts and where it will end up. It is worth noting that usage of Mass Effect 2 quickly started to show a decline. With the exception of Modern Warfare 2, this is a fairly common trend for hit titles. So it will be interesting to see if the Modern Warfare 2 usage goes up as Mass Effect 2 usage declines.

When looking at a longer list of core January title releases (along with Modern Warfare 2 to retain the same scale as in previous charts), it is clear that nothing was even close to the usage of Mass Effect 2. Army of Two: The 40^th Day, Bayonetta and Darksiders: Wrath of War all had very similar reach curves peaking at nearly identical levels while Dark Void and Divinity 2: Ego Draconis were both played by significantly smaller audiences. Based on these usage estimates, DFC forecasts that in the U.S., Mass Effect 2 outsold all other major January releases by a factor of at least six-to-one.

Forecasted U.S. Xbox 360 sales during January:

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/mass-effect-2-outsold-all-major-releases-in-january-by-six-to-one-says-dfc/2/