Pac-Man met with initial commercial success, selling 7 million copies and eventually becoming the best-selling Atari 2600 title. More than one million of those cartridges had been shipped in less than one month, helped by Atari's $1.5 million publicity campaign.[16] However, purchases soon slowed and, by summer 1982, unsold copies were still in large quantities.[2][5] Many buyers returned the games for refunds, and Atari was left with 5 million excess copies in addition to the returns.