Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Only Sold 882,000 Units At Retail In November

NPD Group have released some early numbers on retail sales for certain games, and Star Wars: Battlefront II from EA and DICE only moved 882,000 units during the month of November in the United States. That was across PS4 and Xbox One.

This news came courtesy of a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, Sarah E. Needleman, who shared the investor note on Twitter.

EA’s microtransaction-laden title was on the receiving end of a righteous backfiring when gamers spoke up and challenged them on the inclusion of premium pay-to-win loot boxes in Star Wars: Battlefront II. It’s unlikely the game will hit the 13 million projected sell-throughs that analysts had raved about prior to its release.

Angry parents joined in on the fray alongside hardcore gamers when they found out that the game was aimed at kids, but featured gambling-style lottery boxes. The loot boxes were setup in such a way that the only way to upgrade your character was to acquire said loot boxes. If you were unable to get what you wanted from the standard boxes using in-game credits, it was possible to pay real money to access more credits to unlock more loot boxes so you could finally get what you wanted. This resulted in both gambling commissions and lawmakers getting involved.

It’s no surprise that EA’s stubbornness on the matter easily flared tempers above the usual backlash that the company receives, and this resulted in people being angry enough to not only get the government involved, but many withheld their wallets, despite some media outlets still shilling for the game, the ESA coming to EA’s aid, and some fanboys still trying to convince plebs that they should just ignore the loot boxes and have fun. Well, thankfully a majority of people didn’t listen, but there was still 882,000 suckers out there who fell into the trap, willingly.

Meanwhile, Activision’s Call of Duty: WWII managed to sell 4.4 million units at retail across home consoles and PC, in the U.S., alone.

These sales don’t include digital purchases. Some people are trying to make excuses for Star Wars: Battlefront II, saying that the digital sales might offset the retail sales, but it didn’t work with Destiny 2 and it’s doubtful the negative press led more people to purchasing the game digitally just to support EA’s attempt to normalize gambling with kids.