Over a million copies of Starcraft II fly off the shelves

Blizzard couldn't be happier with Starcraft II sales, but how big are they?

Blizzard is no stranger to high-volume game launches, and though the past has brought them commercial success with the likes of Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2, it seems Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is the one to tip the scales heavily in their favour.

Starcraft II was released on July 27 simultaneously in 18 different countries across over 8000 stores in 11 languages, and though the standard and collector's editions have only been on sale for a few days, it has already accomplished many important milestones.

A proudly-worded press release found its way to our inbox this morning, which explained that Starcraft II had a "day-one sales milestone of more than 1 million copies sold worldwide." This momentum continued over the next day, selling an additional half-million copies and "setting the record for fastest-selling strategy game of all time."

These impressive volumes aren't just good for Blizzard; they're also good for retailers. Stephen Wilson, Managing Director of EB Games Australia, notes that "After only a single day of sales, StarCraft II is already the bestselling PC game of 2010 at EB Games."

It's no wonder that the game has sold this many copies, with our look at the first three missions highlighting the quality that gamers can expect, and it is similarly easy to predict that the coming Starcraft II expansion will have a similar impact on the PC gaming community.

While long-term success of the game depends on the multiplayer experience to give it the exceptionally long legs that the original Starcraft had, Blizzard couldn't be happier with it in the short term.

Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard, is confident for the future: "We're pleased that so many people around the world have already picked up a copy of the game, and we look forward to welcoming even more players to Battle.net® in the weeks and months ahead."