It's true that the websites would have driven most of the sales, but still interesting that the response was better than when Apple featured the app (which is also a big deal). I suspect the one-day-only nature of the sale might have helped quite a bit.
I agree, one-day-only is a big motivator for me. Even though Panic's Diet Coda was priced a little more than I would normally have paid for an app I know I probably won't use very often, knowing the price was going to double tomorrow rather forced my hand.