Homefront racks up 1 million sales

By Fred Dutton Published 24 March, 2011

Plus, best debut week of 2011 in UK.

Post-apocalyptic FPS Homefront sold over a million copies in its first week on sale, THQ boasted today.

That figure includes sales in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific markets and is off the back of 2.4 million units shipped to retailers.

The bragging didn't end there though. THQ also pointed out that the shooter is the UK's best-selling week-one new console release of 2011 so far.

"We are very pleased with strong worldwide shipments and sell-through for Homefront, and we continue to fulfill new retail orders for the game across the globe," commented THQ CEO Brian Farrell.

"Homefront is clearly resonating with gamers and we are certainly pleased with our initial sales results."

All this is surely good news for developer Kaos Studios. Prior to release, THQ exec Danny Bilson told Eurogamer that its future depended on strong sales of the game.

Homefront landed on these shores on 18th March for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, winning a middling 6/10 from Eurogamer.

"What's most disappointing is that Homefront wanted so much to join COD and Battlefield at the top of the genre," wrote Dane Whitehead, "but has ended up as merely a weekend timewaster for players waiting for the next shooter fix.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bekdouche #1 1 year ago

    It would be nice if I could play the f*cking game.

    The start-up freeze is just taking the piss now, i'm trading this in for Crysis 2 tomorrow.

  • Lunastra78 #2 1 year ago

    Well that's good news for THQ. Not that I care for Homefront but I need my fix of Darksiders 2 and Saints Row 3.

  • Shikasama #3 1 year ago

    This should send a strong message to meta-critic obsessed publishers and show that a game doesn;t have to review well to sell well.

    It should also send a message to the games 'media' that apparantly no-one cares what you think :p

    Or, it just means that you can package up any vague marine type shooter and itll do well because that is all gamers are trained to play these days.

  • MojoDex #4 1 year ago

    shooty shooty bang bang was always going to sell well, even if it is a bit crap!

  • JoeGBallad #5 1 year ago

    You know what? Good on them. Not played the game but it's good to hear a passionate developer's hard work paying off, despite any flaws the game may have. And yes, hopefully this will be a message to a metacritic-addicted industry.

  • Mr_Brown #6 1 year ago

    To be fair, there are much worse games (peripherals) that have sold well and not deserved it. Its far from a perfect game, but I think it could be improved with a sequel. Most of the criticisms I have about it are simple mistakes with balancing in multi-player and a longer campaign. A bigger budget may also help.

    I am swapping mine in for Crysis 2 tomorrow but I did buy the game twice (the 2nd time for the free copy of Two Worlds Two from Gamestop really).

  • metalangel #7 1 year ago

    Congratulations to Kaos... I bet you guys never imagined when you started making Desert Combat that one day you'd make a game that would sell a million in a week!

    Bad research strikes again in this item, though. Homefront is NOT a 'post-apocalyptic' shooter.

  • rotsujin #8 1 year ago

    "The millions of dollars we spent on advertising this mediocre title is really resonating with gamers."

  • Goodfella #9 1 year ago

    I wonder if there's an alternate reality where people don't buy shit games in droves?

  • byakuya83 #10 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 10:03:41 30-03-2012

  • koopa #11 1 year ago

    "This should send a strong message to meta-critic obsessed publishers and show that a game doesn;t have to review well to sell well."

    I don't get it, is that supposed to be good? But I think your "marine type shooter" explanation is correct...
    Edited by koopa at 24/03/11 @ 20:56

  • spiritsnake #12 1 year ago

    to be honest its a mediocre game. i thought so, my friend thought so, hell even my workmates thought so. although the bits with the goliath shooting and rockets was real nice, i liked controlling goliath!!

  • RobotRocker #13 1 year ago

    Good to know that racism doesn't just sell for Richard Desmond then.

  • Daeltaja #14 1 year ago

    Traded the broken piece of shit in. Couldn't even load the game up since friday. Utter joke.

    Playing Crysis 2 at the mo and it's lurvely!

  • Raiten #15 1 year ago

    @Goodfella, that alternate universe would be where current gen consoles were without online gaming.
    People just don't care what they purchase anymore as long as it's marketed enough and has desent multiplayer, game quality is irrelevant, oh and without forgetting one major factor, it has to be a yet another shooter.. even better if it's "realistic".

  • Tryhard #16 1 year ago

    Homefront will see the biggest trade in of all time with 500,000 traded in for Crysis 2.

  • Farzlepot #17 1 year ago

    Considering it's pretty much the only high-profile shooter release so far this year, it's not really a surprise. Even I was tempted, and I know exactly how shit it is!

  • DAN.E.B #18 1 year ago

    this is what happens when gaming is main stream!
    most people who buy this kind of shit dont even know games are reveiwed

  • ExplodingClown #19 1 year ago

    Ah, Fred Dutton! "Intergalactic shooter" (WH40K Space Marine), and now "post-apocalyptic fps". Well, someone's got to maintain the laughing-stock status of games journalism, I suppose.

  • CaLeDee #20 1 year ago

    I can honestly say this is a bad game and really doesn't deserve these sales. Especially when much better games like Alan Wake and Enslaved are being overlooked. I'm also getting burned out on FPS so that might be a part of the problem, but seriously, it just wasn't a good game at all, apart from maybe the last level.

  • randompanda #21 1 year ago

    Farzlepot - For 360 you mean? I've been enjoying Killzone 3 for quite a while now.

  • Quixz #22 1 year ago

    Shocker a shooter sells well! Even that sniper game sold well.

  • Snake_2011 #23 1 year ago

    Crysis 2 will take that spot now THQ.

  • Snake_2011 #24 1 year ago

    Crysis 2 will take that spot now THQ.

  • Sir_STRESSHEaD #25 1 year ago

    I returned this game for a full refund at Gamestation today. Shame really cos when the servers were behaving and I could actually start the game up I thought the online was pretty awesome! Was disappointed once more this morning when I logged in to find I had lost all my unlockables/weapon kill counts and then couldn't get te game to restart!

    THQ certainly won't be bragging when the majority of those games are traded in or returned.


  • omniscient #26 1 year ago

    LOL It seems now that a game needs to just be an FPS to do well. Decelopers will find it harder and harder to argue another case.

  • TenderChicken #27 1 year ago

    One of the worst FPS titles I've played in years. Literally no redeeming features that I can think of off hand! Tries to be Battlefield and CoD and falls so wide of the mark on both accounts. I had genuine hope Homefront might stop me from playing Bad Company 2 for a while, but all it's done is make me appreciate it more.

  • firef7y #28 1 year ago

    Every other ad I seem to see is for this game, the marketing budget must be massive.

  • billy-beauts #29 1 year ago

    You lot are all so far off point it's scary. Homefront is a 'me too game', but unlike a lot of higher rated games it's possible to have hours of fun and entertainment with this game. That's what matters, not the metacritic score and that's what the guy means when he says he hopes "this sends a message to the gaming industry".

    When professional reviewers review games they factor in so many other things like the novelty of the title, quantity of content, technical capabilities, etc. etc. What they're not able to judge, partly because it's their job and they are withered and numb to it, is how much fun a game is. They just pluck these 8s, 7s and 9s out of the air, and can't do what most gamers want them to do and simply try to quantify the amount of fun they have with a game on a schale of 1 to 10. That's why real devs and real gamers pay little attention to meta scores.

  • barnard666 #30 1 year ago

    I think they were just lucky, because no interesting games have been released in a while making homefront an easy purchase in a dry season

  • frugtkompot #31 1 year ago

    Technically, Homefront is not a post-apocalyptic shooter.

  • j3mSpur #32 1 year ago

    Personally I suspect a lot of FPS fans bought in due to all the pre release coverage that placed heavy emphasis on the new and interesting MP dynamics: battle points and battle commander. Sadly these features turned up packaged alongside a rather derivative and fugly SP and MP has real connection issues. Myself and the one other chum who bought it have already traded back along with a ton of others if forums to be believed.

  • Atropos #33 1 year ago

    *sigh*

    While I'm glad for the programmers and their families that they'll have jobs to go to, I'm not exactly elated that this vaguely-fun-but-forgettable title is selling so well. Only reason I played it is I got a free advance copy.
    I packed it in halfway through to play Enslaved, which I bought last week and completed yesterday. I enjoyed that a darn sight more. Go buyEnslaved if you want to support games with vision, it's this generation's Beyond Good and Evil!

  • the_merchant #34 1 year ago

    Hopefully this also sends a message to the greed-and-fear-driven stock market who made THQs share price drop by 20% on reaction to mixed reviews. Anyone know what has happened to the share price since the game reached the 1 million mark?

  • rotmm #35 1 year ago

    Still down there Merchant http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=TH...

  • menage #36 1 year ago

    Glad I rolled with Crysis 2, hope it at least sells a bit cause it's awesome.

  • CelticTerry #37 1 year ago

    Great news, hopefullly the majority stay online because the multiplayer in Homefront is superb.

  • ForozM #38 1 year ago

    Just shows how little reviews mean for sales.

  • Raconteur #39 1 year ago

    Sales figures don't show the whole picture. It would be interesting to know, 1 week later, how many copies have been returned/traded in.

  • local_celebrity #40 1 year ago

    Dane Whitehead?

    I'm sure Dan will appreciate that one.

  • Bluetooth #41 1 year ago

    How many of those 1 millon will be in the preowned section a couple of weeks later?

  • Financed_Hoe #42 1 year ago

    wow. 1 million insecure americans.