I'm waiting for Shio to use these numbers to show that COD4 sold 8 to 10 million on the PC... xD

Yup, Crysis was a huge success. It sold 1.5 millions on retail in the first 6 months, so there's still 18 months of sales worth of retail sales that not included, nor were the digital distribution sales counted.

PC games keep selling for years, so the more time is allowed for a PC game to sell, the more it is successful. Starcraft 1 sold only 1.5 millions in the first year, and it is now over 11 millions. Crysis sold 1.5 millions in 6 months, faster than Starcraft 1, and it is now probably over 2 millions and may reach 3 millions lifetime.

No one knows how much it sold.  What I can say is that:

- COD4 dominated Steam far more L4D ever did, although back then Steam was not as big.
- COD4 is sold on other DD services and also dominated there (on D2D atleast). L4D is only sold on Steam.
- COD4 dominated on Retail, which L4D never did.

Stalker was even less impressive than L4D on charts, yet Stalker reached 2 millions over a year ago.

Who said mediocrity has anything to do with sales? Crysis was one of the most hyped games on PC in recent memory and we all know hype is a much bigger contributing factor to sales than your personal opinion that it was mediocre, especially considering most reviewers liked it and thats where most people look for opinions before they buy a game.

@mudface

were arguing retail sales only, thats probably total sales. Still even if it sold 2 million at retail how does that speak towards L4D which is a multiplayer centric game and also a much less hyped game?

All I'm saying is that before shio and ssj12 would argue that PC games sell 5 times better than console games when all the data points to that being far from reality. Hell I remember a thread a while ago where ssj12 said the sales for L4D on 360 were crappy, so now that we have a little more data and it looks like both versions sold the same with the PC version very likely having sold a little less what does he have to say about those "crappy" sales?

Good job Shio. Very good job. You did extremely well on your report.

Maybe on the consoles hype is a contributor, not so on the PCs. You don't see huge frontloaded sales on the PC, even WoW only sold 2.8 mil first day for its expansion (out of potential 12 million that's VERY weak). If the games sucks the game sales suck and piracy on it skyrockets. Also most people can agree with the fact that it was a mediocre experience and people value word of mouth more than a reviewer's word. Couple that with PC sales not selling immidiately like consoels and you get shitty sales.

Edit: Another thing to keep in mind, when Crysis came out VERY few people could run it even decently while L4D and CoD4 didn't have that poblem (what, with them being on consoles and all). I'm pretty sure that had a lot to do with why people didn't buy it at the start as well, then the fact it sucked just turned them off when they could. Crysis just turned out to be prime for piracy since it didn't have much value beyond being a really good benchmarking tool. Honestly, I've pirated it on 4 or 5 different occassions just to see how my PC will run it after an upgrade or two and how far it can be pushed.

There's just one problem, by Activision own report CoD4 had sold around 1 million units on the PC as of last May.....

And there is really no reason for them to lie about it.......

Wait so u expected more than 3 million first day for a WoW expansion with a previous install base of 12 million?! That is an amazing figure don't try to spin it, 1 in 4 potential people bought an expansion pack first day. Also how about the recent big pc games like spore and the sims? As I recall those had huge first week sales. Hype is just as much a factor for PC sales as it is for any other console. Every once in a while you get a gem than continues to sell over the years like starcraft, but to take that and use it as the rule for every pc game is laughable, especially when the exact same cases exist on consoles too. Also most people buy games by amount of hype it is receiving in the general media or based off reviews from websites like IGN or any other big gaming review site, not off word of mouth or discussing it with other people in forums like we do. 

misleading title somewhat, i came in expecting a list of games that are on sale atm.

Because comapring L4D and Spore/Sims on the PC is liek comparing CoD4 and WiiFit/Sports, in which case CoD4 absolutely bombed, respectively.

Also 3 million is low, also that 12 million was the total account active, the number of elligable people (total with WoW) sit closer to 20mil, so yes, that's actually very weak. Far worse when you look at Halo2 total vs Halo 3 first day.

Also that once in a while "gem" as you call it is not a fluke, it's called a good game. Any game that DOESN'T continue to sell is because it's not worth being sold. Starcraft is a good game, so it still sells, and so is Empie Total War, Warcraft 3, etc. Make a good game and it sells, make a mediocre game and it doesn't. It's really easy to comprehend, also very brutal since PC gamers have a pretty high bar for quality in games.

As for consoles, there are plenty of good games which don't see sales. Look at Zack and Wiki on the wii as a quick example.

I used those games as an example of front-loaded sales not as a comparison against L4D. Only people with active account would care to buy an expansion to a game for the most part and your comparing the release of a new game in a massive franchise to an expansion pack which isn't comparable in the least.

When did I say fluke, by using the word gem that infers that the game is good, stop putting words in my mouth. Are you seriously suggesting that every good game on the pc sells well but that the same is not true of consoles because in that case your just delusional.