Titanfall 2 struggled out of the gate at retail, but there was a modicum of solace to be found in the fact that the dire sales reports only represented physical copies. Given how many gamers have eschewed the whole "go to a store and pick up a box" routine, it was at least possible that digital sales could help balance things out. According to a Superdata Research report, however, that hasn't happened.

On the bright side, digital doesn't seem to have made the situation any worse. TItanfall 2 launch week sales were "barely a quarter" of the original, and that's about where digital has landed too.

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"Electronic Arts made the poor choice to push out the title in between the releases of two larger and more popular FPS franchises. The divided attention of FPS gamers had a negative impact on sales, bringing in total of only $18 million," Superdata wrote. "Compared to Titanfall 1 (which released in March 2014 against no competing titles), Titanfall 2 brought in only 28 percent of its predecessor’s first month revenue."

The ongoing criticism of EA's decision to wedge Titanfall 2 between those "larger and more popular" franchises—Battlefield and Call of Duty—is brought into even sharper relief by the fact that Battlefield 1 apparently did quite well against Infinite Warfare all by itself.

"Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 1 shot to first place in console rankings, becoming the best-selling new release for October with $70 million in revenue on console and $110 million across all platforms," the report says. "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will likely generate more sales than Battlefield 1 on console, but is unlikely to beat Battlefield’s PC performance."

It's actually good news if you're willing to take the long view: Battlefield can finally punch with Call of Duty, and Titanfall 2 stumbled not because of any inherent flaws in the game, but simply due to a really bad (and so far unattributed) scheduling call. The trouble is that the long view is never assured in this business. Battlefield will be fine, but a falloff like this, especially in light of the uncertainty we've already seen, does not bode well for the likelihood of a Titanfall 3 happening.