We all drop our jaws in awe whenever we see the sales figures of blockbuster titles or platforms like Call of Duty 4 or the highly elusive Nintendo Wii. Yet, according to a new media research company called Interpret, those numbers pale in comparison to the actual number of people these games reach. The company’s CEO Michael Dowling suggests there are many things that factor into how many people a single game actually reaches. Some notable reasons are game rentals, social play, used game purchases, and good old fashioned game trading.

Take Call of Duty 4 for example. According to the NPD numbers, the game sold about 3.68 million copies in the United States. However, a whopping 10.65 million people have played it. The same story can be told in regard to Guitar Hero III, and Halo 3. In all these cases, the games reached more than two times the number of people who are accredited for buying them.

So what does this mean for the industry? My guess is this study can be one more reason in support of in-game advertising in the future. It makes sense for the people who stand to make money. Four million eyes gawking at a billboard for Mountain Dew Game Fuel is better than two million. I’m not too sure if this will go over so smoothly with gamers though. It does, however, bring up a powerful saying; When you’re with a game, you’re with everyone the game has ever been with. Deep…