DayZ Sells 172,500 Copies In 24 Hours

It's not quite Hollywood attendance figures, but it's getting there. The standalone alpha (or alpher, if we're using “Rocket” speak) has managed to move a massive 172,500 digital copies within the span of 24 hours.

As noted on Blues, the Tumblr page for Bohemia Interactive's CEO, Marek Spanel, contains some interesting information on the current sales state of the recently released standalone alpha of DayZ, the post-apocalyptic zombie survival game.

Marek notes on his blog that...

It's an amazing feat for a small title on a limited budget like DayZ to explode in the way that it did. As noted in our article yesterday about the game's sales, Bohemia Interactive and Dead “Rocket” Hall rolled out the release of DayZ silently, meaning that there was no announcement that the game had gone live.

Funnily enough, in spite of flying in the face of traditional press announcements, the quiet release of the “alpher” garnered Bohemia Interactive so much traffic in such a small amount of time that it crashed their store page. Just like the DayZ mod before it, the DayZ standalone alpha became a word-of-mouth sensation in a matter of minutes.

In fact, DayZ's standalone has netted Bohemia more than $5.1 million in sales, as noted on GamesIndustry.biz

The game's popularity has boosted it into some mainstream gaming circles – everyone is talking about DayZ and now a lot of newbies want to get in on the action.

Dean “Rocket” Hall, however, issued a few words of warning to those wanting and willing to get in on the wild survival simulator, Tweeting...

Half-Life 3 confirmed indeed.

Projected sales of DayZ's standalone could reach the millions in a matter of weeks. The original mod helped Arma II sell a couple of million units and it's not unlikely that given the game's unprecedented hype and momentum (despite being drenched in more bugs than a Fear Factor contestant) will continue to carry through for as long as the community keeps a vested interest in the concept.