NBA 2K13 is the fastest-selling entry from Visual Concepts and 2K Sports' multiplatform basketball franchise, benefitting from increased international sales and the cancellation of its primary competitor.
EA Sports was due to release NBA Live 13 in early October, a reboot of its own popular basketball series, but the publisher announced its cancellation due to quality issues just two weeks ago.
As the only high-profile basketball title released just before this year's NBA season is set to begin, 2K Sports' title managed to sell 49 percent more copies in its opening week compared to the franchise's previous best-seller NBA 2K11 (NBA 2K12's sales were dampered by the delayed season caused by last year's NBA lockout).
International sales played a major role in boosting NBA 2K13's numbers, as first-week sales outside of America increased by 66 percent compared to NBA 2K11.
2012 has been a great year for key sports game releases, as EA Sports saw both Madden NFL 13 and FIFA 13 set sales records -- the latter is the fastest-selling game of the year.
I think it's impressive that a game can be of such a high quality so much so that it takes a monopoly of the basketball space. While EA has to resort buying a monopoly for football.
