Soccer, or Football as the Europeans call it, isn't meant for everyone. I mean, seriously, when looking at a game on TV and seeing little ant-looking guys run across a field the size of an airport with virtually no breaks, while kicking the shit out of each other's shins, head-butting a ball and each other, and having hardcore fans ready to beat you to a pulp with seating benches and pint glasses for missing that easy goal, all while kicking around a ball, most Americans will turn away intimidated and back to ogling the most "exciting" sports ever - Baseball.

Of course, this doesn't apply to the hardcore dudes over in Europe. They love their sport just as much as a pimp love suede and croc skin. We know this because not only do we know Europeans, but because of the ridiculous sales for FIFA 10 which has taken place.

According to EA, FIFA 10 is "the fastest selling sports game ever and EA's biggest European launch in history." Yes, this mean that it has sold faster than the very popular Madden franchise which is oh-so-popular here in the states. But, according to an analyst over at GamesIndustry.biz, the sales aren't going to help EA in the long run. An analyst from Cowan and Company, Doug Creutz, says the following:

"Several UK supermarket chains ran limited-time half price promotions for FIFA 10. While we expect that this will have no impact on the revenue recognised by EA, we do think the promotions have the impact of pulling forward demand," wrote Creutz.

"Last year Tesco ran a similar promotion, and UK launch week sales of FIFA 09 were up 38 per cent versus FIFA 08. However, worldwide sales of FIFA 09 were only up 4 per cent year-on-year through the end of December, thus the early spike in UK demand did not translate into significantly higher final worldwide units.

"We believe the same could be the case this year, though we do think FIFA 10 is likely to grow year-on-year, in part due to franchise-high critical review scores in the low-90 per cent range,"

Well, we know that although FIFA sells like hotcakes over in Europe, the game give s little impact over here in the states. And that's only because, although Soccer is a world renowned sport, Americans aren't really keen on it. So far, however, the game is performing extremely well, as per EA. Let's hope that this continues and doesn't take the path that FIFA 09 took last year.

[Source GamesIndustry.biz]