June 2009's The Sims 3 was the number one selling game worldwide last year according to Electronic Arts, and it moved over 100 million pieces of user-generated digital content.
The Sims franchise is able to top PC game charts even in its 10th year. The latest entry, June 2009's The Sims 3, was the number one selling PC game of last year, publisher Electronic Arts said Friday. That means the game outsold other PC contenders like Blizzard's phenomenally popular World of Warcraft, although that game's last major expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, launched in November 2008. EA said this is the sixth time this decade that a Sims game was able to top annual PC charts. Shortly after The Sims 3's launch, EA said the game sold 1.4 million units in its first week of availability, and had sold 3.7 million in EA's fiscal quarter that ended June 30, 2009. The publisher said total calendar 2009 unit sales were gathered from retail sales trackers NPD Group in North America, Chart-Track in the UK, and Gfk in France, Spain, and Germany, along with internal EA estimates. Last week, NPD said The Sims 3 was the best-selling PC title in the U.S. at physical retail in 2009, with Wrath of the Lich King coming in second place for the year. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe and The Sims 3: World Adventures also made the U.S. retail top 10 for 2009. With The Sims 3 (which is also available on Mac), EA placed a heavy emphasis on the game's online community. It maintains an official website that, according to the publisher, sees over 6 million unique monthly visitors. The digital sharing site The Sims 3 Exchange has hosted over 100 million downloads of user-created virtual items in the past seven months. The Sims 2 took "years" to reach the same milestone, the company said.
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