Skyrim bolts from retail with 3.5 million sales

by Steven Mostyn - Nov 17 2011, 11:51

Given that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion wowed critics and consumers almost six years ago, you’d perhaps think expectation would be high for the next entrant in Bethesda’s sprawling fantasy series. You’d be right… and then some.

More pointedly, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has shifted in excess of 3.5 million copies (worth around $225 million USD) during the first two days of availability—which is more than half of the seven million first-run copies shipped to retailers.

In terms of evaluating Skyrim’s impressive momentum, Oblivion required some 10 months on retail shelves before its copies sold counter surpassed 3.5 million units.

Of course, its availability was restricted to PC and Xbox 360 during that period (March 2006 to January 2007) as the ported PlayStation 3 version didn’t arrive until a year after initial release.

Already shaping up to be a strong contender for ‘Game of the Year’ with a number of media outlets, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim presently has a Metacritic average of 96/100 across a total of 69 different reviews (Xbox 360 version).

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