According to online marketing and research firm Hitwise, the buzz around Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV seems to be far bigger than it ever was around Microsoft's Halo 3. Comparing U.S. Internet search data for the week before the release of each game shows that searches for "grand theft auto iv" or "grand theft auto 4" were 22 percent higher than they were for Halo 3.

Interestingly, retailers were not the biggest recipients of the GTA traffic spike. Hitwise UK's VP of Research Heather Hopkins points out that gaming sites and social networks were getting the most visits, and Rockstar Games' own website saw its traffic soar on launch day (April 29), with visits quadrupling versus the week previous. The top driver of traffic was apparently from MySpace.com.

In the U.K., GTA IV has already set records. We're still waiting for official sales tallies for the U.S. and worldwide. Analysts have estimated the game would sell anywhere between six and nine million units during its first week.