FIFA 11 Sells 2.6 Million Units Over Opening Weekend

FIFA 11, this year's iteration of EA's soccer franchise, sold 2.6 million units across its opening weekend in the U.S. and Europe according to internal figures released by the publisher today. The game, which launched last Tuesday in the U.S. and last Friday in the UK, has made $150 million according to the publisher. EA released a number of additional statistics about the game, stating that sell-through is up 29 percent compared to last year's title, and claiming that the period between October 1-2 was the busiest of any EA Sports game in terms of online engagement. Gamers registered more than 18.6 million online connected EA Sports game sessions, with more than 11.3 million contributed by FIFA 11 over the two-day period. EA also confirmed that this year’s iteration of FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode will be launched as DLC for free next month. Ultimate Team challenges players to build a squad of the world's best footballers by buying, selling and trading players. “We’re thrilled at how fans embraced FIFA 11 last weekend," said EA Sports boss Peter Moore, "and we are excited to be able to offer one of our most popular game modes – FIFA 11 Ultimate Team – for free this November,” “This is a landmark achievement for EA SPORTS – we’ve shattered sales records at retail, critics are praising FIFA 11 as being one of the most authentic and innovative titles ever, and fans are connecting and competing with other gamers around the world and have logged a record number of online connected game sessions.” FIFA 11 launched for PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC, PS2, PSP and Nintendo DS.