February US PC charts feel Wrath of the Lich King

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Mar 13, 2009 3:32 pm PT

NPD reports World of Warcraft expansion's reign at retail has extended for another moon; Sims 2 Double Deluxe takes silver, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II bangs out bronze.

The NPD Group doesn't release monthly PC game sales figures like it does for non-PC hardware, software, and accessories. But while the latter stats won't arrive until next Thursday, this week saw the US's top game-industry research firm release its list of the top 20 PC game software titles for February.

It's good to be the (Lich) King.

To the surprise of few, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was the month's most popular title. The second expansion to Blizzard Entertainment's nearly 12-million-user-strong massively multiplayer online role-playing game had lorded over the PC charts until the middle of February, when it was toppled by the month's third-place finisher, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. However, THQ and Relic's critically praised real-time strategy sequel was still bested by chart perennial The Sims 2 Double Deluxe from Electronic Arts.

Besides the top slot, the WOW series owned fourth (World of Warcraft: Battle Chest), seventh (World of Warcraft), and 10th place (World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade) on the chart. In fifth was F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin from Lord of the Rings IP reclaimer Warner Bros., followed by Will Wright's evo-civi-space sim, Spore. EA also landed eighth place with the Sims 2 Apartment Life add-on, followed in ninth by Fallout 3, GameSpot's 2008 PC Game of the Year.

A full listing of the top 20 games of February is below. Rankings are drawn up from the NPD Group's survey of retailers and do not reflect online sales or digitally distributed content on services such as Valve Software's Steam.

Feb. Rank / Jan. Rank / Title / Publisher / Average Price
1 / 1 / World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $38
2 / 2 / The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / Electronic Arts / $19
3 / */ Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II / THQ / $49
4 / 3 / World of Warcraft: Battle Chest / Blizzard / $37
5 / * / F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin / Warner Bros. Interactive / $50
6 / 4 / Spore / Electronic Arts / $45
7 / 5 / World of Warcraft / Blizzard / $18
8 / 7 / The Sims 2 Apartment Life / Electronic Arts / $20
9 / 8 / Fallout 3 / Bethesda SoftWorks / $47
10 / 11 / World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade / Blizzard / $28
11 / 10 / Call of Duty: World At War / Activision (Activision Blizzard) / $46
12 / 9 / Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 / Electronic Arts / $30
13 / 6 / Left 4 Dead / Electronic Arts / $46
14 / * / The Sims 2 Deluxe / Electronic Arts / $18
15 / 12 / Civilization IV / 2K Games ( Take 2) / $21
16 / 13 / The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff / Electronic Arts / $18
17 / 17 / Starcraft: Battle Chest / Blizzard / $20
18 / 14 / Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack / Electronic Arts / $18
19 / */ Diablo Battle Chest / Blizzard / $34
20 / 16 / The Sims 2 Pets / Electronic Arts / $19

95 Comments

  • Eldramesha

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 2:48 pm PT

    @J_Phett: WoW proves one thing, Art Design is still king.

  • Slammer612

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 2:06 pm PT

    @onething77

    Which is fine if your sick of it then you should say I should move on. Why would other people move on if your sick of it, perhaps if you made sense like that on the 1st post it wouldnt of been a problem, so again like I said, almost 12 million people arent "sick of it" and that your comment is pretty dumb trying to tell people to leave the game cause you dont like it.

  • J_Phett

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 12:38 am PT

    Inconnux, I completely agree. Having struggled in my early pc gaming life to get pretty much any game running on my old computer I *shudders* had to turn to Runescape to play a pc game. So people with middle-lower end computers will turn to WoW, rather than other mmorpgs with cutting-edge graphics; not just because they can run it, but so they can participate in a good game as well.

    So credit to Blizzard for realizing this and making a game/s that the vast majority of people can play...even if they bleed you dry.

  • -Unreal-

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 7:32 pm PT

    Yeah this is games sold at retail I think. So this is not including the option to buy the game ("digitaly") on Blizzard's website and download it.

  • Vaqaas0

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 2:34 pm PT

    I'm really surprised, I would've never guessed Diablo would be on the list

  • Inconnux

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 1:18 pm PT

    Blizzard does so well because they know what makes a great game... and it is not bleeding edge graphics.

    To make a great game it must run on the VAST MAJORITY of systems, it must be relatively bug free at release time, it must be FUN!

    Too many game developers think that making something overly complicated and must have bleeding edge graphics == good game. Blizzard knows better and that is why WoW, Starcraft and Diablo are still on the charts.

  • sykonfc

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 12:09 pm PT

    For Dawn of War 2 to achieve third place while only being out for half of that month, that's good. Besides, it did topple the top two in the weeks it was out.

  • jsmoke03

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 11:44 am PT

    might as well put a blizzard title on the top of that list for at least 5 more years.when sc2 and diablo 3 come out, blizzard would have cornered the pc market by a large margin

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 10:52 am PT

    mattdv and everybody: NPD does not just include retail. It's right that it doesn't use Steam and other download services, mostly because those companies are not willing to release their sales numbers (probably because they are lower than people think, because if they were higher, I am sure they would release them!). If companies like Steam won't release sales numbers, you can't blame NPD - blame Steam and worry why Steam won't give out the numbers!

    What NPD DOES include is the bulk of web based retailers, like Amazon and and others that will ship the product to you. Hence, when combining retailer sales with web retailer and mail order sales, it is getting at least 70% of all sales. Becuase we don't know the sales of sites like Steam, for all we know NPD may be getting 90% of the sales or 50%. it just depends on how well companies like Steam ACTUALLY do, as opposed to what we (and the media!) ASSUME they do. When it comes to downloading, there is a lot of supposition made out as fact. You have seen/will see how 'huge' Steam and others are, but until they give out hard numbers nobody knows - remember that next time you're tempted to say downloading is huge, or Steam are huge, or if you included downloaded games the market would be much bigger - because quite frankly -we don't know. And I would suggest we pressurise the likes of Steam rather than NPD! We might also ask ourselves why we get so few sales number's in general, like this one. Because chart position is only half the story! For example, what if the No.2 title, The Sims 2 Double Deluxe sold two million and the No.3 title, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II sold 60,000. That would be telling a bigger story than just who is No.2 and No.3, wouldn't it??!! So think more about what you're NOT told, rather than what you are!

  • dewwy

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 10:24 am PT

    Holy f&%k! I had no idea the battle chests still sold that well! Who's just picking up Warcraft 3 now?

    And yea, it's pretty crazy that Activision Blizzard & EA comprise 80% of the top 20 PC games.

  • mada362005

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 9:43 am PT

    lol i love how blizzard controls 1/3 of the top 20 games and only one of them is new-ish...sad

  • _Piranha_

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 2:29 am PT

    CoD: World At War.. nice game!.. (Stalingrad and Germany/Berlin episodes)...

  • prohogo2

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 2:24 am PT

    love Dawn of War 2! Its the best rts game, period.

  • Brendissimo35

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 10:47 pm PT

    whatever, steam still beats this

  • gameking5000

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 10:19 pm PT

    Seriously why is Sims on the list? I thought it was old.

  • mattdv

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 10:05 pm PT

    This is just for games sold at retail, right? I don't remember the last time I bought a PC game at a real store...

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 9:54 pm PT

    Oh, and adziboy, if you like deep strategy games, get DoW and the expansions. If you like heavy on the action with very very light roleplaying, then get DoW 2. Either way, you'll be spending about the same amount of money. But DoW and it's expansions will keep you entertained for about 10 times longer.

    I'll back this up by pointing out that at the same point after release, DoW had sold 40% more units than DoW 2. (Something to chew on!)

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 9:49 pm PT

    I say this every month - whre are the SALES numbers. Because I think you'll find there is a HUGE drop off between No.1 and 2 and No.3 - No.20!!

    Also, when you take out the main course of Sims packages, then the Spore deserts, you don't have much of a hard-core meal to keep you sustained either!

    All sad news for those of us in PC gaming for more than 10 years....!

  • Michall

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 9:32 pm PT

    Adziboy, DoW2 is definitely worth the money. The single player is very different from the 1st part, you only control 4 squads at a time and get skills and items. When I heard about it, I felt disappointed but when I started playing the game really drew me in quickly and I really enjoy it. The experience and item gathering draws you in, and the action is great. You get to make a lot of choices and as your guys grow in strength, you really feel it as they annihilate everything much faster than with worse gear.

    Get it, it's not even that expensive.

  • Ownsin

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 7:13 pm PT

    Its at the top because there isn't any good game selling...

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