Skyrim Ships 10M Worldwide, 'Fastest Selling Title In Steam's History'

Bethesda has revealed that its critically acclaimed RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, released last month, has shipped more than 10 million units worldwide. Skyrim, the fifth in the The Elder Scrolls series, was released on November 11 and has since won multiple awards at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and been named as the most played game of 2011. The game has made more than $650 million in retail sales across its Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions, and Bethesda noted that the PC version outsold all other PC game releases in North America by a factor of more than three-to-one during its first month on sale. To add to this, Valve's director of business development Jason Holtman also revealed that the game is now "the fastest selling title in Steam's history," although he didn't reveal exact sales figures. "Bethesda's commitment to and understanding of the PC as a gaming platform shows in the great review scores, spectacular launch, and continued high player numbers that Skyrim has received," he explained. "We are delighted that Bethesda chose to use Steamworks to support Skyrim both at retail and digitally." Robert Altman, CEO of Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media, added, "We are gratified that Skyrim continues to garner high review scores and accolades around the world." "We are most grateful to our fans for their support and enthusiasm for the game, and their love of the hundreds of hours of gameplay it offers. We continue to strive to deliver the highest quality entertainment experience for everyone." Bethesda plans to make the game's development tools public next month, as the "Creation Kit" will include support for Valve's Steam Workshop and allow users to upload their Skyrim creations to the service, after which other users can browse, rate, and flag mods for download using any web-enabled device.