The latest sales reports on VGCharts.com for LittleBigPlanet show that most of the world went LBP mad over the Christmas Season, bringing the highest sales for the game since it launched.
We put our stats hat on, and then slipped in to our spreadsheet brassier to take a look at the juicy figures:
A whopping 1.65 million copies sold then, according to VGChartz.com.
But hold the phone a minute - there is a huge 4 weeks worth of information missing there! Stats for the final, big week of Christmas spending are unavailable for Japan, and more importantly, the last three weeks of Christmas in the biggest selling regions: Europe and remaining territories.
We weren’t satisfied with those figures and wanted to estimate the sorts of results that might be coming in over the next coming weeks.
So, the following graph shows missing sales data estimates for Europe and Japan. The estimates are based on the average percentage increase in sales, week on week, from both USA and Japan, with the final week being based on just the USA (as that is the only data available).
This forecast puts LBP well in to the 2 million sales mark, with 2.48 million copies sold worldwide.
OK, ok, ok - so we’re not pretending to be sales experts here - we realise that LBP sales in Europe and remaining territories are unlikely to exceed their first-week sales.
But those figures are based on the percentage increase in sales from both Japan and America over the Christmas period, and Europe should follow a similar pattern.
Even if our estimates are twice as high as the actual figures however, it means LittleBigPlanet has hit the big 2 million mark. Woohoo!
So, do your bit - get out there and tell your friends how damn good this game is!
At £17.99 on Amazon UK or around $52 from U.S retailers, there really is no excuse!
[UPDATE]
Sony just announced (January 8th 2009) that LittleBigPlanet has sold 1.3 million copies worldwide. We’re not sure which set of data to believe, but if Sony’s info is accurate, then it means VGChartz.com are spouting total *******.
This graph clearly shows Europe as the biggest market (for LBP at least), so come on Sony - start treating us with the respect we deserve! Did we ever get a reason for the MGS pack delay?
Can’t believe it’s only £17.99 already, I paid £40 for the game on launch day, that’ll teach me for being impatient, although even at £40 it’s still a bargain for a potentially endless game.
I don’t think that the data is missing. I think that it hasn’t occured yet, because of the delay and the several weeks between releases in each territory. The data is probably correct the way it was before you changed it.
There is only a week or so from the holiday sales to be added to the others total because like Josh says it was released later in the EU. It is likely though that the combined worldwide sales for its first 10 weeks on sale in each region will top 2m.
When you look at how many units Fable 2 has sold in its first 10 weeks on sale in the US 50% of those sales came in its first week and then sales dropped off hugely. LittleBigPlanet on the other hand has sold evenly and continues to do so. Its funny that Fable 2 is being considered a blockbuster success while people are still saying LittleBigPlanet is a sales failure despite it looking almost certain that LittleBigPlanet will overtake Fable 2’s worldwide sales within the next month or so and will probably go on to sell massively higher over its lifetime.
Just a few days ago Peter Molyneux (who’s studio is owned by Microsoft) was talking about the disappointing LBP sales. LMFAO
Good point chaps, the delay in Europe should count for something.
It was just a 1 week delay though, so we’re still at least 2 weeks down on those EU figures.
I think LBP will perhaps be one of those real slow burners for many people, it will be interesting to see sales figures over the next few months.
about time!! well cant wait for the official sales
