Football fans had much to celebrate as the NFL season kicked off yesterday with the Cowboys beating the Giants. But, Electronic Arts has even more reason to party. In the one week since Madden NFL 13's release, the publisher has reported sales of 1.65 million units--an eight percent increase over last year. By EA's admission, that figure represents the franchise's "best start ever on this console generation."

According to figures released by EA, players have logged the equivalent of 47,000 NFL games in the one week since the game launched on August 28, according to publisher Electronic Arts. There have been 24 million Madden games played on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with 1.4 million online connected players last week. More than 3,000 games were played on Labor Day alone (or about 13 games per minute).

While the numbers only reflect HD consoles, the game is also available on the Wii and PS Vita. The game is also coming to Wii U, but minus the Infinity Engine.