FIFA 13 sells 4.5 million copies in five days for best launch-week sales of 2012 yet

FIFA 13 sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide on all platforms in its first five days of release, according to publisher Electronic Arts — a window that began with the North American launch last Tuesday, and includes Friday's launch in Europe.

That number continues the FIFA Soccer franchise's record-breaking sales success: FIFA 13 has the highest-selling launch week of the year thus far, and the highest-selling launch week ever for a sports video game. More than 1 million of those FIFA 13 copies were sold in the UK alone on the European launch day, Sept. 28. Only three other games have managed that feat — the last three Call of Duty games.

EA Sports' FIFA Soccer series is also breaking its own records yet again. The old record holder for the fastest-selling sports game was last year's entry in the franchise, FIFA 12, which sold more than 3.2 million copies in less than a week. That means that FIFA 13 launch sales are up 40.6 percent year-over-year. (FIFA 12 also had the best launch week of any video game in 2011, to that point in the year.) And FIFA 12 broke the record that 2010's FIFA 11, with 2.6 million copies sold during its first week, previously held.

FIFA 13 is now available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 2, PSP, and iOS. Check out our review here.