based on the first week sales, about 50k, and a recent talk with a gamestop employee, madoworld seems to have flopped and/or not sold well.  Here's how the conversation went.

me: Please tell me Madworld's been selling well.

him:  To be completely honest, we've sold one copy.  (this was 4 days after it came out.)

me: you've got to be kidding me!

him: yeah, there isn't really a following for that kind of thing around here.

I'm personally very unhappy about this.  What about you guys?

Maybe you live in an area with no Wii owners.

I need to see some data.

I'm sure this game will end up selling well over 1 million on the Wii's huge install base.

Wait for NPD

Also, did you see any averting in the store maybe that's why.

your town is weird :P

on the "no wii in my area" thing, I hadn't seen it officially "in stock" ever until 3 weeks ago, and I know over 10 area friends with a wii, so that can't be why.

Also, they didn't hide the game or anything, there were 2 copies in the new release section and behind the counter there were three stacks of discs, with one stack one lower than the others.  I thought the box art was pretty appealing.  No blood, cool jumping guy with chainsaw, etc.

this is what happens when you release a 6 hr long game with little replay value.

It's a new IP that, despite it's high reviews, seems new and different. A lot of gamers aren't going to just outright buy it because of that. 50-60k is what I expected its first week.

Just cause it's third party and good does not mean a game will sell. And don't be deluded by internet hype--it takes household name games to really generate enough buzz to get really strong opening weeks.

To be honest those numbers are fairly in line with a lot of predictions on here (though sadly, not mine). Hopefully the sales can stay somewhat constant, a la Call of Duty: World at War Wii. That started out around the same amount (less?) and is now over a million and still going steadily.