average retail price of $49. In its second week of availability, the game was pushed to #2 by Backyard Basketball, and the Collectors Edition was absent from the top 10. Firaxis's title remained in NPD's weekly top 10 from November 11–December 1, and took sixth place for November as a whole. After an absence, it reappeared in the weekly top 10 twice during December and secured 11th for the month. Civilization III finished 2001 with domestic sales of 294,789 units, for revenues of $13.5 million. Civilization III sold 550,000 copies and earned $21.7 million in the United States by August 2006. At the time, this led Edge to declare it the country's 21st-best-selling computer game released since January 2000. Combined sales of all Civilization titles released during the 2000s totaled 2.5 million units by 2006. Internationally, Civilization III received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Reviews and awards Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that "Given that Civ II was as close to perfect as any game has ever been, it's arguable that it wasn't possible to change it so much as add to it." Upon release, the reaction to Civilization III was very positive. It won several "Game of the Year" awards such as the Interactive Achievement Awards 2002 Computer Strategy Game of the Year. The editors of Computer Games Magazine named Civilization III the best strategy title and best overall computer game of 2001. They commented, "It's the best Civilization yet, and that's saying something." Nonetheless, the initial release of the game was slightly marred by bugs and glitches. The first patch came very soon after the game's initial release and other patches were released subsequently, improving gameplay significantly. The patches also added certain features, such as the group movement command. There were complaints about the addition of features and bug fixes after initial release. The editors of PC Gamer US awarded Civilization III their 2001 "Best Turn-Based Strategy Game" prize, and wrote that it "manages to recapture all that was great about its predecessors and color them with a few great new strokes—without pantsing up what was so great about them in the first place." Civilization III was a nominee for Computer Gaming Worlds