Fifa 13 sells millions, 600 million minutes played online since launch

600 million minutes of Fifa 13 have been played online since launch last week. Imagine what we could've achieved if we'd piled the collective effort of those 600 million minutes into one project. We could have amassed enough money to quash every superinjunction in the land, delivering a payload of footbally gossip to snigger at/moralise over for months, perhaps years . We could have surreptitiously replaced Spurs players with identical android versions one by one, renamed the club Robottenham Botspur and ruled the league as kings. We could have built a giant golden statue of Balotelli, mid-hulkout , squatting over the London Gherkin as though he's laid an enormous glass egg.

But NO. We decided to stay indoors and play a quality game instead.

Fifa 13 has broken all sorts of records. EA announce that 4.5 million copies have been sold worldwide. More than a million copies were shifted here in the UK on release day. Players have jumped into 66 million "online game sessions." EA caught 800,000 people playing online concurrently.

It's surprising that Fifa 13 has done so well compared to Fifa 12. Last year's edition boasted much flashier on-the-box upgrades like the addition of the impact engine and the overhaul of Fifa's defensive systems. The first touch control system and improved attacking AI of Fifa 13 seem less likely to catch the eye of shoppers, but there might be legions of fans out there who haven't picked up a footie game since Fifa 09/10 who suddenly sat up wide-eyed "I WANT MORE FOOTBALL." What do you think?

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.