Industry analyst and part-time gypsy magician Michael Pachter today predicted over on Industrygamers that “There is no prayer that Battlefield 3 will top the next Call of Duty, silly question. EA is trying to gain share incrementally, and I’m sure that if it is a great game, Battlefield 3 will sell 25 – 35% more copies than the last version. It would have to sell around 300% more than the last version to topple Call of Duty.”

Earlier this month, Call Of Duty: Black Ops was officially declared the hugest thing ever in the States, pushing 13.7 million units there alone. Estimates have the world total running upwards of 18 million.

“The question you didn’t ask is whether Battlefield 3 will take share,” he added. “Based upon the growing installed base of CoD multiplayer players, it’s possible that both games will see higher sales in 2011, so I wonder whether EA will actually ‘take’ share.”