Electronic Arts has announced that, based on internal data, Madden NFL 2005 sold more than 1.35 million copies at retail stores within the first week, making it the biggest week one launch of a Madden NFL Football game in the franchise’s fifteen year history.

“Once again, EA SPORTS has delivered the best football experiences in the market,” said EA Vice President of Marketing Todd Sitrin. “Both our Madden NFL 2005 and NCAA Football 2005 games have posted extremely high review scores and the strongest launch sales in the history of their franchises.”

“Somehow Madden NFL 2005 outdid itself, after last year’s huge launch, this year’s was even bigger and better,” said GameStop President and Chief Operating Officer Dan DeMatteo. “We spent a lot of time before last week preparing our store managers for the biggest retail event we’ve had in the past year, it was a great week for GameStop and Madden fans all over the country.”

“No other game generates the kind of consumer excitement and traffic that Madden does,” said Debbie Mola, Vice President of Merchandising at EB Games. “The passion of the Madden consumer and the anticipation for its launch makes Madden the most unique retail experience of the year.”

Based on internal tracking, EA estimates:

  • Madden NFL 2005 had the biggest week one launch in the history of the franchise, selling more than 1.35 million units.
  • NCAA Football 2005 was the #1 selling video game on the PlayStation 2 computer system in July 2004.*
  • With double digit sell-through percentage increases this year, both Madden NFL 2005 and NCAA Football 2005 are tracking ahead of last year’s record volume, when independent data showed they were the number one and number two selling football titles for the year.
  • Within a month of NCAA Football 2005 shipping and with Madden NFL 2005 on store shelves only a few days, EA SPORTS football titles have registered more than 315,000 new user accounts to play online through the PlayStation 2 console and on Xbox Live.**
  • “The excitement we’re seeing over Madden NFL 2005 and NCAA Football 2005 is at an all-time high,” added Sitrin. “Yet again EA SPORTS fans are telling us loud and clear that they’re fired up for our 2005 roster of games and if Madden NFL Football and NCAA Football aren’t enough, NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2005, NBA LIVE 2005, NHL 2005, FIFA Soccer 2005 and March Madness 2005 all are coming out soon — delivering all the innovations in gameplay and online features any sports gamer can want.”

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