It’s been a long, long time since I’ve needed to type SYS 64738 but I smiled when I read it. I knew that command by heart.

I agree, 27 million is an absurdly high number. Even if you add the 64, VIC-20, 128, all Amigas, PETs, and PCs, I can’t see how Commodore would have sold 27 million computers total.

Being in the USA, we had similar rivalries between the 64, Apple II, and Atari 8-bit line, so that’s my common frame of reference. But I can objectively say European programmers were better at pushing the 64 to its limits than US programmers were, generally speaking. The games imported from the UK always had very impressive graphics and sound. Especially sound.

https://www.bcs.org/articles-opinion-and-research/the-rise-and-fall-of-commodore/

I remember the C64 as one of the ‘big three’ 8-bit home computers in the UK market alongside the inevitable ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC.

There was a lot of playground rivalry between childhood owners of the C64 and the Spectrum, but for an objective observer the Commodore machine was clearly the better product. My budget-conscious family had the cheaper Spectrum but my friend’s C64 could run impressively colourful and audio-rich games. Rob Hubbard’s excellent soundtrack for “Monty on the Run” was a particular highlight of the era.