Madden 07 sets career sales record

If Electronic Arts' estimation of the sales success of Madden NFL 07 is accurate, this year's game could be headed to the Hall of Fame in no time. The publisher believes that more than 2 million copies of the game have been sold across all platforms in just its first week of release.

This year's first-week sales are up 12 percent over Madden NFL 06's 1.8 million units sold over the same period last year, says EA. Though the franchise has always performed well in retail during its 17-year career, EA's estimation makes Madden NFL 07 the best-selling game in the franchise's history of first-week performance.

Earlier today, Microsoft claimed that the Xbox 360 version had logged more than 2 million hours of online play over Xbox Live--the equivalent of 228 years in just one week.

Of course, one of the reasons the game could be selling well is because football fans who want to get their game on don't really have any other choices. In late 2004, EA struck a five-year deal to obtain the exclusive rights to make NFL-licensed games--it later also acquired Arena Football and NCAA college football licenses. The only other high-profile pro-football franchise is Midway's Blitz: The League, which focuses on a seamy, drug-addled, violent, and completely fictional football league.

Madden NFL 07 is rated E for Everyone and was released on all current-gen platforms and the Xbox 360 on August 22. PlayStation 3 and Wii versions are currently in development. For more information on the game, read GameSpot's review.