It came as no surprise to anybody when Kingdom Hearts II, the much-anticipated sequel to Kingdom Hearts, flew onto the shelves. Square Enix and Buena Vista Games have quantified Kingdom Hearts II's strong reception by releasing some shipment figures for the popular series.

According to an April 7 announcement by the two companies, Kingdom Hearts II had shipped 1.3 million units since its release on March 28. The figure rivals that coming out of Japan, where 1.2 million units have been shipped to retailers since the game's release five months ago, December 22. Some elementary math reveals that a total of 2.5 million copies have been shipped world-wide to date.

The first Kingdom Hearts has seen 2.6 million units shipped to retailers since it hit the market in September 2002, and combined with Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the Game Boy Advanced iteration of the series, 8.5 million Kingdom Hearts games have been shipped since its inception. With the upcoming European release of Kingdom Hearts II, Buena Vista and Square Enix are predicting the series will soon reach 10 million copies. In comparison, Square Enix's flagship franchise, Final Fantasy, has sold 65 million units, and Dragon Quest 40 million.