Valve: 2.5 million Left 4 Dead sold

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 27th March 2009
Comments (11) Stumble
Valve: 2.5 million Left 4 Dead sold

More than 2.5 million copies of Left 4 Dead have been sold at retail alone according to Valve.

Valve may not ever release sales figures for any games that sell on Steam, but that doesn't mean the company doesn't like to boast about sales from other sources - especially when games sell as well as Valve's Left 4 Dead.

Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in America today, Valve revealed that the four player co-op zombie shooter Left 4 Dead had sold more than 2.5 million copies...at retail alone.

In other words, that's not counting the sales that come from Valve's own Steam platform, so the real sales figures are going to be much, much higher than that. Like really big; just remember how much Steam sales can jump when a discount hits and then bear in mind the recent Left 4 Dead sale.

The figures do cover both PC and Xbox 360 releases, according to ShackNews, but the developer hasn't broken down how the sales divide between platforms.

Sales for the zombie-slayer are set to jump again next month when the Left 4 Dead survival addon gets freely released.

If you've not played Left 4 Dead yet then rest assured that you're missing out on one of the best games of last year. Check our full Left 4 Dead review for more details, or skim your eyes over our guide on how to play Left 4 Dead properly.

Pass on your thoughts on the game in the forums.
Quote Bauul 27th March 2009, 14:43
I get the impression L4D has been really rather succesfull. Funny, you wouldn't quite think it in the same mainstream bracket as something like CoD 5, but it looks like the things sold bucket loads. I imagine total sales are at the very least double that. In fact, I imagine PC sales are probably around 20%/80% in Steam's favour over retail. I mean, it's a co-op multiplayer game first and foremost, so will be most of interest to people who already play multiplayer and as such are used to digital distribution.

Good on Valve I say. Yet another brilliant product from probably the most important FPS developer around (sorry id).
Quote Yemerich 27th March 2009, 15:05
When I see articles like those i think to myself "TAKE THAT SWEENEY"!

So, it looks like the workarround piracy is making good multiplayer games, huh?

BTW Mister Martin, you didn't forgot to check and update us on CoD: Modern Warfare II, right?
Quote Sir Digby 27th March 2009, 15:09
I have to agree that Left 4 Dead has done very well - it has been the first Valve game that I've heard people who aren't 'gamers' talking about and they've only been saying positive things.

They're going to get a nice surprise when they get their first free update :) (xbox users)
Quote Xtrafresh 27th March 2009, 15:51
I just bought my copy through steam :)

Funny thing, it was because of piracy (at a LAN-party) that i got hooked on playing it :D
Quote Jordan Wise 27th March 2009, 16:21
I bet it's three times that overall, I agree with Bauul with the 20/80%, but they sold more copies on that weekend sale than they did at release, which I can imagine was a lot, seeing as it had so much hype after the demo
Quote Horizon 27th March 2009, 17:03
now they just need to add server filters, I'm getting tired of joining servers with 4 tanks running around. And Boomers spawning every 10 seconds.
Quote Jerz 27th March 2009, 18:04
I played Left 4 Dead on the 360, was rather disappointed. It was an alright game but you can get zombie HL2 mods for free that are very similar. It's still better than the mods but I don't think it is anywhere near better enough to justify a full retail price of 49.99, maybe 19.99. Basically it just seemed like another (improved) zombie mod of HL2 but asking full retail price.
Quote nicae 27th March 2009, 18:56
It's no surprise it sold millions as Valve has been pushing it a lot.
It's also no surprise I didn't like it because it's a zombie shooter. Boring plot from the start. I played it once and had fun, both single and multiplayer with friends on LAN, but it gets repetitive.

Then again, only few games kept me hung on. Some of them are:
- Day of Defeat (HL1 mod) with online and on-LAN competitions and community
- Warbirds - online flight sim (100+ players) with persistant war arena
- Civilizations 1, 2 and 3 and Colonization 1
- Total War series from Rome and on
- X-COM 1, 2 and 3

I think I'm getting old :\
Quote roshan 29th March 2009, 02:29
Its repetitive from the start.ppl say this one from valve is great simply because they haven't played enough games to compare with this one.
I ask the question whats new for u to get excited, to go for next map?
Maps are really not adding any thing to this multilayer game.
I know when we say it was developed by value,sales going up.coz they have the great reputation of developing two great games of all time.Half life and Half life 2.And Counter Strike also.
Quote steveo_mcg 29th March 2009, 14:06
I have played many many games and i still think this is great. in fact the Bit-Tech Team have also played lots of games so i think your argument is a little shallow to say the least. Fair enough you don't like it but to say (effectively) only noobs enjoy it is just plain dumb.
Quote Bungle 29th March 2009, 14:21
Quote:
Originally Posted by roshan
Its repetitive from the start.ppl say this one from valve is great simply because they haven't played enough games to compare with this one.
I ask the question whats new for u to get excited, to go for next map?
Maps are really not adding any thing to this multilayer game.
I know when we say it was developed by value,sales going up.coz they have the great reputation of developing two great games of all time.Half life and Half life 2.And Counter Strike also.
It's the co-operative gameplay that has everyone enjoying this title me thinks. In a sea of rambo style FPS, this is one of the few titles that actually forces co-op play. Sure there are good, even exceptional players out there, but in this game, that means nothing in comparison to the best team players. Just needs valve to release the DLC and the mod community to get there snouts into the SDK and this game is gonna be with us for a long time I reckon.
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