Since launching at the end of October 2011, Battlefield 3 has shipped twelve million copies to retail and sold eight million of those, according to EA.

It’s nowhere near Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s zillion-something sales, but perhaps significantly, it’s already sold more than Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has in eighteen months, showing that the Battlefield brand is definitely on the up and up.

Maybe next year, eh?

Sales are dropping off a bit, though. The game pushed five million units during its first week of release, so that’s three million more in November.

Still, with Christmas and the freebie-to-first-buyers Back to Karkland DLC map pack next month, EA expects the game to continue selling well.

The DLC features four maps brought over from Battlefield 2, including Strike at Karkand, Wake Island, Gulf of Oman, and Sharqi Peninsula, as well as a bunch of new weapons and vehicles.

Late yesterday, the PlayStation Asia Store posted the DLC’s launch date as 7 December, although the listing has since been (mysteeeeeriously) removed.

Assuming it was correct, because PlayStation 3 gamers are getting the DLC a week early, that puts the PC and Xbox launch dates a week later, on 14 December.

Source: Game Informer