Battlefield 3's pre-order numbers are "roughly comparable" with those of Call of Duty: Black Ops, according to industry analyst firm Cowen & Company.

As a result, the firm has decided to increase its first year sales estimate for DICE's FPS sequel from eight million to 11 million.

Black Ops has sold around 20 million copies in its first nine months on sale.

Battlefield 3 might be keeping up with Black Ops, but it seems it's a way off matching the retail buzz for Modern Warfare 3 - which it goes head-to-head with later this year.

Earlier this week UK vendor Game announced that this year's COD release is "already tracking significantly ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops at the same time last year."