Video-game sellers couldn’t wait to get their hands on Activision Blizzard Inc.’s new title “Destiny,” which was released Sept. 9 and shipped 10 million copies in its first week. But relatively disappointing retail sales meant the parent company suffered a different fate.

Shares of Activision plunged 10 percent during the week ended Sept. 17, closing at $21.44. The Santa Monica video-game maker was one of the biggest losers on the LABJ Stock Index. (See Page 50.)

Michael Pachter, a managing director at downtown L.A. brokerage Wedbush Securities who covers the company, said the number of units shipped to stores and put in stock (or “sold in”) raised expectations that weren’t met by the number of units sold by retailers to end customers (or “sold through”).

Gamers bought 5 million copies of the sci-fi shooter in its first five days on the market, but Pachter said he and other analysts had thought 5 million would sell in a single day.

“The 10 million-unit sell-in number caused many, including me, to believe that the sell-in for ‘Destiny’ was so high due to huge first-day demand,” Pachter said in an email. “I think investors genuinely believed that the 10 million units shipped implied first day sell-through of 4 million to 5 million.”

However, he said that for a new game – and not an additional title in an established franchise – “Destiny” sold extremely well.

“This is the highest sell-through for any new intellectual property in history,” Pachter noted.

In a Sept. 17 press release announcing the sell-through numbers, Activision emphasized that point, calling “Destiny” the “best-selling new video-game franchise launch of all time.”

And although retail sales fell short of some investors’ expectations, the company said those who did buy the game couldn’t put it down.

“‘Destiny’ fans played more than 100 million hours of the game in the first week,” Eric Hirshberg, chief executive of Activision subsidiary Activision Publishing Inc., said in the press release. “That’s on par with the engagement levels of our most popular ‘Call of Duty’ games, which obviously is an industry leader.”

Activision declined to comment.

The game received an average score of 76 on gaming review website Metacritic, which Pachter noted is less than the historical average of 90 given to titles produced by “Destiny” developer Bungie Inc. in Bellevue, Wash. However, he said many people giving the game poor marks had yet to advance far enough into the game to unlock many of its more exciting features.