BF: Bad Company 2 sells 2.3m

By Robert Purchese Published 18 March, 2010

Best-selling March release ever.

Shopper enthusiasm for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 may not have been as fervent as for Modern Warfare 2, but DICE's shooter has gone on to break a record of its own, becoming the best-selling March release on record in North America and Europe.

Released in the first week of the month, Bad Company 2 has now sold over 2.3m copies - according to EA's internal counter.

Players have amassed 81bn points during online multiplayer battles and unlocked 43m weapons and gadgets. Also, more than 6m YouTube videos of gameplay have been recorded and the BFBC2 Twitter account has 44,000 fans - the most of any EA game and more than Eurogamer's Johnny Minkley.

Just in the last 24 hours, over 2.9m hours of BFBC2 have been racked-up online. The most people together online at one time is recorded as 230,000.

Comparisons were always going to be made between Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2. To combat that, EA and DICE went on an aggressive PR campaign, flaunting dedicated PC servers, parodying viral videos and shouting about free map DLC.

Infinity Ward and Activision appear to have done nothing other than be responsible for the world's best-selling videogame.

Nevertheless, EA and DICE did deliver. "Modern Warfare is the obvious benchmark, and Bad Company 2 meets and even passes it with ease," we said in our Battlefield: Bad Company 2 review, before awarding the game 9/10.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DavoTheDiv_2010 #1 2 years ago

    Want it but waiting for a sub £30 price

  • seandog #2 2 years ago

    What a game...have even bought myself a wireless headset for playing this on me xbox!!!

  • lordofthedunce #3 2 years ago

    Great news. Looking forward to playing it.

    Are there as many racists playing this online as MW?

  • el_pollo_diablo #4 2 years ago

    I'm really pleased to see this do well.

  • 1Dgaf #5 2 years ago

    I think this article should point out that DICE's comments on 'free DLC' are incorrect. T here is no DLC yet. The maps are on the disc. EG should point this stuff out, really.

  • Moonprince #6 2 years ago

    "Infinity Ward and Activision appear to have done nothing other than be responsible for the world's best-selling videogame."

    Lol, don't follow industry news much then Rob?...

  • matrim83 #7 2 years ago

    Well deserved. Although the PC version still has some minor niggles.

  • riz23 #8 2 years ago

    Great game. Good for them.

    @lordofthedunce - You can only chat to your 4 man squad, so unless you hang out with Nazis or the odd random you won't suffer that most of the time. In fact unless I am with friends there is little chat at all. You dont need to for teamwork because of the way the game (very cleverly) controls although its a massive advantage if you do of course. You will love it!
    Edited by 1 at 18/03/10 @ 16:09

  • gjgjg #9 2 years ago

    just bought it today, looking forward to playing the 'proper' online mod war hehe (still 'love' COD tho)

  • CaptainQuint #10 2 years ago

    Congrats to DICE, it's well deserved. BFBC2 runs rings around MW2, in the gameplay and online dynamics stakes.

  • tossetaz #11 2 years ago

    Incredible game but what the hells a twitter-fan? they mean followers :)

  • Golgo #12 2 years ago

    @lordofthedunce. Chat is limited to your squad so you'll never hear more than 3 people chattering away, and you'll never hear the opposing team. (Seems to be default setting - not sure if you can alter). Anyway, I've not heard any grief or name-calling at all.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #13 2 years ago

    Lol, don't follow industry news much then Rob?...

    I don't remember Activision or Infinity Ward saying anything about BFBC2.
    Edited by 1 at 18/03/10 @ 16:12

  • Kosmoz #14 2 years ago

    Snowmobiles are for pussys

  • lordofthedunce #15 2 years ago

    @ riz23 & Golgo

    Ah, thanks very much, that sounds like a great balance.

  • tenma #16 2 years ago

    I rarely care about how well a game does sales-wise and I don't know if it's just due to the bad taste in my mouth MW2's campaign left, but I really am happy to read this article. Bad Company 2 has a genuinely fun campaign mode that I can see myself replaying many times over and I've heard nothing but great things about the multiplayer modes as well.
    Edited by 1 at 18/03/10 @ 16:20

  • Shikasama #17 2 years ago

    Why does that guy in the first post get a -7 for waiting for the price drop?

    You lot are fucking idiots

  • Pablo2k5 #18 2 years ago

    @ Shikasama21 "You lot are fucking idiots"

    Agreed. Which is why I hardly ever post. Great website but frequented by fuckwits I'm afraid...

  • CaptainQuint #19 2 years ago

    Care to point us all in the direction of one which isn't?

  • Syrette #20 2 years ago

    So why are there still half empty servers and squads of 4 on 2 etc occasionally?

  • stuarty_2003 #21 2 years ago

    It's cause you blow shit up.
    +1 for blowing shit up.
    Edited by 1 at 18/03/10 @ 16:53

  • Moonprince #22 2 years ago

    I think you're missing the point of the DICE features / advertising etc Bertie. I'm not here to explain it to you though...

  • sanctusmortis #23 2 years ago

    1DGaf: they did, on the podcast.

    We need another staff game, soon. With a later start for those of us with kids. But last night's 4 hour session was epic in every sense.

  • fknetwork #24 2 years ago

    Possibly the best game I have ever played, just love it!
    And I love how each game is different, I was walking along earlier looking over the hill on rush, next thing a helicopter falls on my head!

  • Zidargh #25 2 years ago

    Well deserved.

  • stuarty_2003 #26 2 years ago

    2.3m, at an average price of, oh say, 35 of the Queens...£80,500,000 in sales (not profit). Not that shabby.

  • frankfurter209 #27 2 years ago

    Feel good news of the day

  • Bremenacht #28 2 years ago

    "Nevertheless, EA and DICE did deliver. "Modern Warfare is the obvious benchmark, and Bad Company 2 meets and even passes it with ease," we said in our Battlefield: Bad Company 2 review, before awarding it the same score."

  • AphoticCosmos #29 2 years ago

    Just love it!

    Can't wait to finish the term and play it on my rig at home . . . it looks good on my laptop and runs well, but I need pretty-juice!

  • ghiest #30 2 years ago

    Love the game, shame about the troubles I'm having actually trying to play it. The latest patch has just made the troubles ten times worse, logging in takes 2-5 minutes now, refreshing servers takes another two to five minutes and when I eventually find a server 60% of the time I just can't connect to it. After I do connect it randomly CTD's or boots me because of Punkbuster. Personally I'd be playing ten times more than I do right now if it wasn't for the problems.

  • 1Dgaf #31 2 years ago

    Sanctus,

    OK, I didn't know that. Would have been good just to mention it here, but at least it's up somewhere.

    Incidentally for the people that neg repped me, that's fine, but do consider the fact that without commentary and insight into press releases, we might as well replace writers with RSS feeds.

  • Stop-gap #32 2 years ago

    I've been wary of Battlefield games for a long, long time (I loved the Desert Combat mod, but then I made the mistake of buying BF:Vietnam ;p ), but I have to admit I'm getting more and more tempted this time around.

  • Diomedes #33 2 years ago

    Hows this?

    If the 2.3 number is EA number its shipped.

    And Square has just shipped 3 million FFXIII worldwide didnt they ?

  • waggy79 #34 2 years ago

    Well the article says North America and Europe. The FFXIII figures include Japan I guess.
    Edited by 1 at 18/03/10 @ 21:39

  • MasterNameless #35 2 years ago

    This morning I finally caved under pressure from friends to pick this up, and am very pleased I did. I don't why, but as it was the Bad Company spin-off of Battlefield I thought it wouldn't be quite so much like any other Battlefield. It pretty much identical though, with improved controls - especially vehicle controls!

    So that's 2,300,001 noob snipers now then! :D

    (Not really, I prefer medic or engineer so far \o/)

  • M_of_the_sys #36 2 years ago

    I was considering maybe picking this game up but don't fancy getting killed by baseball players...

    In all honesty, after MAG I don't think I can get used to small squad battles ever again. I don't know if that's a good thing or not because it sounds like a good game.

  • fknetwork #37 2 years ago

    @ M_of_the_sys
    Please don't mention MAG here, its complete shit compared to Bad Company 2.

  • Seabeast #38 2 years ago

    El9inoo obviously hasn't played the game or is simply some MW2 sado.
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 04:16

  • Dave797 #39 2 years ago

    @El9inoo "4) the guns are awful to shoot as well as the veichles handling"

    Yeah thats called recoil and bullet drop mate, I think somes one got a little to comfy with the MW2 false realitly..............
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 07:45

  • PoundHound #40 2 years ago

    @ fknetwork #25. Totally agree! I haven't had the misfortune of having a helicopter land on me, but every game is different. I have rarely played online (a small amount of time on RS:V2 and SCII), but this game has me hooked. I adore it.

  • fknetwork #41 2 years ago

    @ el9inoo

    "its suprising that theres 2.3m of us idiots out the who bought the game its completley awful"
    Your in the minority, just because you suck at the game doesn't make the game poor lol, Bad Company 2 is a fantastic game, my favorite shooter of this generation so far.

    "1. graphics are sub standard playstation 2 graphics"
    What planet are you on? you really must have a shit TV if you think the graphics are "ps2 like", the graphics are superb, the amount of detail in the game is amazing, makes MW2 look like a cartoon.


    "2. story mode is terribe combined with missions that are so repititive"
    I think the campaign is very good, easily on par with MW2's but everyone knows Bad Company 2 isn't about single player lol.


    "3 the fact that ea try to worm every pound for dlc which isnt even worth it"
    Errm, what are you yapping on about? EA/Dice have said all future MAP packs will be free, not 1200 points like a certain other games.....


    "4. the guns are awful to shoot as well as the veichles handling"
    LMAO, this made me laugh, the guns are awful to shoot? you mean its because they don't have auto-aim like MW2 and the weapons in Bad Company 2 actually have decent recoil and are even affected by gravity and distance.

    The vehicle controls are absolutely fantastic, I love the controls!


    "5.and last but not least the online play is just shockingly bad game modes take too long and barely even feel realistic"
    Wow, just wow, I won't even respond to this as you clearly have no idea what you are on about, all I will say is BC2 piss*s all over MW2's online in every way possible.



    "biggest waste of 42 quid in my life and modern warfare 2 never lived up to cod 4 its still miles beter than this rubbish dont buy this game if ur going for a shooting game at least modern warfare 2 does that to a tee or better still settle for cod4 "
    You sound like the biggest COD fanboy ever, I bet you get a hard on just thinking about Infinity Ward.....

  • el_pollo_diablo #42 2 years ago

    I'm with fknetwork

  • metalangel #43 2 years ago

    Server issues aside, it's great. But snipers are still overpowered (despite the idiotic removal of prone which suggests it's the snipers that needed nerfing, not prone), there's no protection against base raping, joining a friend's game can mean a tedious wait for a slot to open up and many of the maps aren't conducive to tanks.

  • berryl227 #44 2 years ago

    "its suprising that theres 2.3m of us idiots out the who bought the game its completley awful"

    @ el9inoo

    Im not going to neg you because you are intitled to your opinion.......

    but you are wrong!