CM4 becomes UK's fastest-selling PC game

Eidos Interactive has today announced that its soccer management sequel Championship Manager 4 has become the fastest-selling PC game of all time in the UK. In its first week on sale, CM4 generated retail sales of 124,627, according to the official UK chart organization Chart-Track--more than doubling the sales achieved by the previous PC best-seller, Championship Manager: Season 01/02.

"This is fantastic news and a tribute to the hard work put in by everyone at Sports Interactive, our own sales and marketing teams, and our retail partners," said Jonathan Kemp, Eidos' European managing director. "We are confident of maintaining strong sales as most of the mainstream campaign, including TV and radio, has yet to begin."

As a result of its incredible first-week sales, Championship Manager 4 has also shot to number three on Chart-Track's all-formats fastest-seller chart, directly behind the PS2 games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and The Getaway.

"It's been clear for some time now that we were going to have a hit on our hands, but for our game to gate-crash the upper echelons of the Sony-dominated all-formats chart is an almost unbelievable achievement," said Miles Jacobson, managing director of Sports Interactive. "I would like to thank all the people in the game's massively supportive fan base for their help and encouragement and every single member of the development team who are now finally seeing some real payback for all the long nights and extra effort that they've had to put in over the past few months."

Championship Manager 4 is the latest installment in what has become the most successful computer game series in UK history. Since 1992, the series has sold in excess of 3 million copies worldwide, and it boasts a massive fan base that's every bit as loyal to the series as they are to their favorite soccer team. For more information on Championship Manager 4, check out our previous coverage of the game.