US PC game charts: May 28-June 3

Boxed, retail version of Half-Life 2: Episode One has strong debut but can't keep pace with World of Warcraft juggernaut.

On June 1, Valve Software's budget-priced stand-alone adventure Half-Life 2: Episode One was released in boxed, retail form as well as through the developer's own digital distribution service, Steam. While the game's online sales figures weren't taken into account, the industry-tracking NPD Group's latest US PC sales chart indicates that the boxed, retail version of the game was the second-best-selling title at retail for the week ending June 3.

Blizzard Entertainment's massively multiplayer PC retail champ World of Warcraft reclaimed the top spot on the charts after spending the previous week playing second fiddle to 2K Games' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which dropped to fifth place. Electronic Arts' The Sims 2 continues to show its longevity, taking the third spot in the charts, with its Open for Business and Family Fun Stuff expansions trailing in sixth and seventh place, respectively.

While the previous week's chart featured a pair of Microsoft-published real-time strategy games in Age of Empires III and Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, both the genre and the publisher were wiped off the charts this week. That was partly attributable to Ubisoft's turn-based strategy game Heroes of Might & Magic V landing the fourth position on the charts, with its more expensive limited-edition package sliding in under the wire in the 10 spot. Sealing the deal and shutting out Microsoft and its real-time strategy games were NCsoft's massively multiplayer Guild Wars Factions in eighth place and EA's first-person shooter Battlefield 2, securely entrenched in the same ninth place it occupied last week.

NPD's US PC sales charts are based on the number of units sold at 23 of the tracking firm's retail partners.

43 Comments

  • mistarogers8

    Posted Jun 27, 2006 9:35 am GMT

    Heroes V deserves a better position and sims2 deserves a 9th place

  • QualityJeverage

    Posted Jun 19, 2006 7:00 pm GMT

    "HL2 there is no runbob"

    Yep. Let's hate one of the best game series in years because there's no runbob. THAT makes sense.

  • laifox

    Posted Jun 19, 2006 1:28 pm GMT

    I have WoW with active account for about 8months now...but starting to loose interest, hoping more single RPG games come up, as someone said before Dark Messiah, NWN2 and others. And yes, HOMM5 and Oblivion rule!..hehe.

  • i_love_my_ds

    Posted Jun 14, 2006 9:44 pm GMT

    people are still buying wow? wow.........

  • s0l0123

    Posted Jun 14, 2006 2:41 pm GMT

    go hommv!

  • world69star69

    Posted Jun 14, 2006 12:52 pm GMT

    I hate the fact the idoits are still bying wow. Blizzard hasn't put out jack since Wow! Where is Diablo 3 Starcraft 2 or a new franchise? Where is all there money going? Not into making games! Hell they have enough loot to hire 50 gaming studios, but do they? No they just reap off a sucky mmo! And in turn other good companies see there success and want to make there own (ahem..Bioware) so that no good single player rpgs come out. I hate mmo's and wow is stagnating the industry. At least we got a few good titles on there: Oblivion, and Heroes of Might and Magic 5 rule! Can't wait for dark Messaih, which uses HL2's source btw.. Down with pay to play games Up with Single player rpgs!!

  • gmrscore-addict

    Posted Jun 14, 2006 12:47 pm GMT

    wow Wow is at first still after all this time its still number one.... hasnt everyone bought it already

  • nightfend

    Posted Jun 14, 2006 6:58 am GMT

    World of Warcraft I can understand, but why are the Sims games ALWAYS in the top 10?

  • faizali86

    Posted Jun 14, 2006 1:47 am GMT

    wow is still kicking!
    the toplist shows that pc gamers are buying good games at least. hehe

  • kIDgAMER08

    Posted Jun 14, 2006 1:29 am GMT

    Sims2 got me for a week - WoW has to be one of the best things ever happened to mankind, and Ep. One was kinda.....(as others have said) short... Kinda a stupid, mean way to earn some money o.o Anyways, besides that it's an awesome list and WoW amazes me every day - in - and out of the game. 7 Million....who would of thought....

  • hazhool

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 11:29 pm GMT

    WoW is the bomb! only other games i have played as long for (and more) then wow are ff:vii (ps1) and quakeIIIarena (pc). i never liked sims and never tried sims 2, but if people are still buying it, it ought to be at least half good and talking about half, i never got into the half life 2 thing only game i've played out of that universe was the HL2 Demo ... i did love it, but still haven't got around to getting the whole game and i regret it.

  • godovivel

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 9:53 pm GMT

    go wow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • StillWingless

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 9:39 pm GMT

    i am proud to say that this week, i contributed to WoW's standing. i am now thoroughly addicted.

  • aura_enchanted

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 7:16 pm GMT

    game raters stop living!

  • TraiklinX3

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 6:30 pm GMT

    HL:EO's ending sucked. Just like LOTR's Fellowship of the ring's ending.

    just as I was pumped and exicted for it, it's over. Gotta wait a month or two before they release episode 2.

    that is why episodic content sucks, if the game is worthwhile (unlike SiN) it sucks you in and you get going in it and by that time it's over and you have to wait.

  • gnbfd

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 6:07 pm GMT

    *Going wow over WoW*

  • Magikdragon

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 6:03 pm GMT

    The Gaming Population of WoW is gonna be bigger than the one of a small country! Way to go Bli$$ard XD, i love WoW though.

  • karn888

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 5:37 pm GMT

    lets face it wow is never gonna die cus blizz will never let it. they already have made in a year on wow alone an amount higher than the gross national profit of every country in South America combined. Go wow 4 ever w00t

  • Mindphaser

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 5:36 pm GMT

    WoW and HL2 both stink. WoW you have to pay a fortune for, and HL2 there is no runbob so you feel like you're on a hovercraft floating from place to place. Dumb.

  • NeoJedi

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 4:16 pm GMT

    It's unbelievable that WoW has retaken the top spot... that belonged to Episode One, in my honest opinion.

  • Oni

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 3:48 pm GMT

    Too many idiots play WoW, but that's probably a good thing. Keep them away from the games I play, right? Let those morons stand around Iron Forge in their Epic loot talking trash all day ... I've got better things to do. I love Sims but I agree that EA is beating a dead horse. But I suppose if that horse keeps producing cash we'll be seeing expansion paks forever.

  • Chubbums

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 3:45 pm GMT

    Well how long does it take to get sucked into a game? After playing Guild Wars for about an hour I couldn't stop playing. But playing WoW just really didn't seem all that appealing, about 20 minutes of play I was bored. That's just my honest opinion. I've played many of MMO's and am not biased because of how different they are. SWG and FFXi were two others I've played. FFXI mesmerized me as well, SWG didn't and it was the first MMO I ever tried.

  • Unstoppable_1

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 3:43 pm GMT

    BLIZZARD SAYS EVERYTHING IS AN MMO!

    http://f13.net/?itemid=167

  • dcoy8

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 3:40 pm GMT

    Props the WoW, but that was obvious, go Battlefield 2!!!

  • megaunit

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 3:35 pm GMT

    MUHAHAH and I just picked up WoW last week, and for people trying the week trial thing, your not gonna get all the good features out of the game in that short amount of time. WoW is pretty sweet.

  • Chubbums

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 3:33 pm GMT

    I tried the 1 week trial of WOW and didn't find it to appealing. Don't get me wrong I love Warcraft's story and mythos, its just that WOW just didn't seem to do it for me. Seeing WOW in the top spot again is depressing because until Blizzard finally stops milking WOW we will never see a Diablo 3 or another Starcraft RTS style game.

  • PsychoFox_basic

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 2:49 pm GMT

    teh hermit crabs, gamespote sasfjl sgampestopte
    world of wawrcraft fteh roczoxrs@ me socks

  • blackIceJoe

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 2:41 pm GMT

    I wonder how much longer it will take WOW before every one is playing this game.With over seven million players there will be soon to be more and with more expansion packs the game will get even better.

  • DJ_Lae

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 2:38 pm GMT

    Ignoring the Sims 2 expansions, that's a fine list. World of Warcraft has had insane longevity. Hell, so has The Sims 2 itself. Wow.

  • veracity024

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 2:35 pm GMT

    go HOMM!!! even though its kinda breakin away from the series

  • Disinfo

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 2:32 pm GMT

    That is a solid lineup of games.

  • Mohamadouf

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 2:24 pm GMT

    WOW is still there ..... isnt 2 years enough for a MMo

  • Yuck_Too

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:55 pm GMT

    They need to combine the numbers for multiple editions...

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:53 pm GMT

    too many people play wow

  • mjfru

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:48 pm GMT

    WoW is CRAZY! Still selling more than all of the other pc games! how long can it keep this up? Blizzard is swimming in money haha.

  • AlexJ-

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:45 pm GMT

    It's only a matter of time before Half-Life 2: Episode One claims the top of that list. We have to face the fact WoW is getting old, regardless of the fact it's an MMO.

  • khaled7

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:44 pm GMT

    The Sims 2 RULES!!!!!!

  • jeebs213

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:43 pm GMT

    when you include the sales via Steam I'm sure Half Life: Episode One was the top selling game

  • rwgober92

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:40 pm GMT

    awsome, i love the list and own (and have beat, besides WoW) all of them.... awsome

  • borris_1

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:39 pm GMT

    Oblivion

  • Twlighter

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:36 pm GMT

    I own all the games. Except WoW.

  • tuff_gong92

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:25 pm GMT

    Half-Life Still RULES! I might consider getting me Half-Life 2: Episode One. How many people can still buy WoW. Half-Life should be #1.

  • runstalker

    Posted Jun 13, 2006 1:25 pm GMT

    Except for The Sims 2, that's a fine-looking list. All games I own and enjoy.

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