'Battlefield 3' Shoots to the Top of Gaming Charts (PHOTOS)

Battlefield 3 blazes past the competition as Electronic Arts sells 5 million copies of the game worldwide, according EA's estimates.

The game also debuted at the top of the UK's sales charts forcing last week's number one game Batman: Arkham City down a spot. EA touts the game has become the fastest-selling game in EA's history. This makes Battlefield 3 the best-selling game of 2011, beating out the third-person shooter Gears of War 3. The company also set the record for the most copies of a game shipped on the same day, 10 million, and the sales records marks half of that shipment being sold.

From Tokyo to Los Angeles, Sydney to London, millions of fans have been playing all weekend long -- we are overwhelmed by the global response to 'Battlefield 3,' Patrick Soderlund, Executive Vice President of EA Games, said in a press release.

Battlefield 3 is a first-person shooter created by EA's DICE. Though the game has a single-player campaign, players spend most of their time playing the online multiplayer mode. The game stands out through its grand sense of scale and destructible environments.

Though the game's release was marred by server instability during its first week. That is to be expected with a huge influx of players flooding the new servers. Gamers would experience service disruption to online games as players were dropped from matches and had difficulty joining games. EA said servers and service uptime stabilized to about 98.9 percent now.

Though Battlefield 3 has won the top spot on gaming charts for now, the game may not be able to hang onto the position for long. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest first-person shooting franchise and is set to release Nov. 8. Call of Duty: Black Ops was one of the biggest sellers in 2010, and sold more than 6 million copies in the first week of sales. The new title already has more than 3 million pre-orders sold, according to vgchartz.com.