US PC Charts Apr. 12-18: Lich King fends off Demigod

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Apr 28, 2009 9:44 am PT

Gas Powered Games' action-oriented RTS debuts at third in NPD's weekly US retail recap; Blizzard's MMOG continues reign.

The fact that the NPD Group only tracks retail sales is especially problematic for PC games, which are often sold in downloadable form. That situation is of particular note for the week of April 12-18, with Gas Powered Games' Demigod debuting at a respectable third on the NPD Group's weekly accounting of PC sales in the US. However, given that publisher Stardock heavily promoted the game through its own proprietary digital delivery platform, Impulse, it's difficult to say just how well the title sold.

Even demigods come up short sometimes.

Aside from Demigod cracking the top three with its debut, NPD's weekly PC chart looks awfully familiar. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King continued its dominance at the top of the charts, followed closely by fellow perennial chart topper The Sims 2 Double Deluxe. Having debuted in the third position last week, THQ's Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor slipped one slot to fourth, while Sega's Empire: Total War finished fifth.

Left 4 Dead, another problematic PC title given publisher Valve's popular Steam platform, placed sixth at retail this week. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest, which contains the original massively multiplayer online game and its 2007 expansion Burning Crusade, joined the World of Warcraft stand-alone edition at seventh and eighth. Two EA games, The Sims 2 Apartment Life and Spore, rounded out the week's chart at ninth and 10th, respectively.

Week of April 12-18, 2009*
TITLE - PUBLISHER - AVERAGE PRICE
1) World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Activision Blizzard - $38
2) The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - EA - $20
3) Demigod - Stardock - $39
4) Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor - THQ - $29
5) Empire: Total War - Sega - $50
6) Left 4 Dead - EA - $29
7) World of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Activision Blizzard - $38
8) World of Warcraft - Activision Blizzard - $20
9) The Sims 2 Apartment Life - EA - $19
10) Spore - EA - $50

* The above chart reflects the NPD Group's sales data drawn from a cross-sampling of retailers nationwide. Therefore, it does not include game sales through nontraditional channels such as digital distribution.

21 Comments

  • keatman

    Posted May 5, 2009 7:28 am PT

    i just started playing WOW a few days ago. the game is quite slow, the fighting + constant lag = frustration (i'm a draenei paladin, anyway). but what most ppl say is true, the game is absorbing, addictive. and now i cant it because it is under maintainence...DAMN!

  • MadeInLlamaLand

    Posted Apr 29, 2009 4:28 pm PT

    Looks the same, WotLk on top, Wow battle chest in the middle and wow right behind it....

  • DeBrick

    Posted Apr 29, 2009 8:35 am PT

    Demigod is much better than it was on release, but in its current state I think 'working' is a better word than 'fixed.' Definitely playable but still a pain for ~70% of people, might be another week or so before everything is finally ironed out (theyre workingo n getting a proxy server up etc)

  • KlnP1987

    Posted Apr 29, 2009 8:02 am PT

    y is spore even on that list?
    at all??

  • MrNib

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 8:06 pm PT

    people still buy spore?

  • SkyRonin

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 7:55 pm PT

    Yes they fixed the networking problems through a patch, the game is alot of fun, but mostly against other players online.

  • Pete5506

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 4:52 pm PT

    hmmm maybe I should try out Demigod

  • Megawizard1

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 4:21 pm PT

    "Its too bad demigod has so many issues, have they patched that connection thing yet? It looks cool but i think i'll hold of till its all fixed up."

    Yea, it's fixed. It was caused from all of the pirated copies pinging the update servers at once. Even though they couldn't update, the program still tried automatically.

  • More_Dakka

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 2:11 pm PT

    Whoa- I wasn't expecting Demigod to do this well actually.

    Nice to see it is doing this well though- I'll definitely be getting it eventually.

  • Windblade91

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 1:51 pm PT

    dota on starcraft 2 will be sick

  • chappy_man

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 12:40 pm PT

    Its too bad demigod has so many issues, have they patched that connection thing yet? It looks cool but i think i'll hold of till its all fixed up.

  • pvtdonut54

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 12:28 pm PT

    glad demigod made the list so high

  • ArtOfCraft

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 12:17 pm PT

    Inconnux: Totally agree with you. I essentially buy most if not all of my PC games from download clients, mostly from Steam (great variety imo.) Who knows how many other people prefer buying online? I mean it's simple, don't need to leave your room, and within a few hours you can get the game you want ready to go and fully updated. I'm definitely a download client person rather than retail.

  • theslim88

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 11:52 am PT

    This makes me think of Dota in Warcraft 3 but this is entirely focused on Dota

  • Inconnux

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 11:08 am PT

    I don't know why they bother, the NPD numbers aren't even close to reality until they take digital downloads into account

  • Mehfuz

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 10:50 am PT

    spore still $50!!

  • lozvil

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 10:44 am PT

    World of Warcraft Rocks!

  • plm3d_basic

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 10:37 am PT

    Can never understand why people enjoy playing WOW or the Sims.

  • Bucketoffish

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 10:37 am PT

    Although it will be difficult to top the NPD until Starcraft 2, I think Demigod is more like in the second position, since digital downloads just aren't trackable. That said, without the digital downloads demigod should be in secondplace for quite some time. Re-review anyone?

  • brianpoetzel

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 10:12 am PT

    Imagine that. Wrath on top? Whodathunkit.

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