Here’s a clue: only two of my Games of 2009 made the top 20 best-seller list. And here’s another clue: none of them were on PSP.
Top 20 Full Priced Games For 2009
1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
3. Wii Play (Wii)
4. Mario Kart (Wii)
5. New Super Mario Bros. (Wii)
6. Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (360)
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PS3)
9. Wii Cricket (Wii)
10. The Sims 3 (PC)
11. Halo 3: ODST (360)
12. Pokemon Platinum (DS)
13. EA Sports Active (Wii)
14. More Brain Training (DS)
15. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
16. Mario Kart (DS)
17. FIFA 10 (PS3)
18. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
19. Assassin’s Creed II (360)
20. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
Things to note:
* Of the top 20, 13 were on Nintendo platforms
* Half the best-sellers were published by Nintendo
* Only 12 of the games were actually released in 2009
* The PC had the same number of games in the list as the PS3
* Modern Warfare 2 sold more copies on 360 despite the PS3 version charting higher most weeks since launch
* Only 5 of the games are classified M or MA15+
What else strikes you as interesting about this list?
Daniel
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:05 PMIn before this story gets filled with ‘not real games’ crap.
It’s hilarious to be as a Nintendo fan seeing this, for years nothing from Nintendo was in the Top 10 apart from Pokemon GBA games. A GameCube game? Na none of that either. Very happy for Nintendo but come on guys step up the release schedule a bit here.
V out!
metalisticpain
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:41 PMI am hoping they do release the big 3 in aus next year. Everyone reckons zelda wont be till 2011 but i still hope it will be 2010, if they did that then it was be an awesome release schedule
lolwut
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:58 PMWhy would you be happy for Nintendo? They’re just another faceless moneygrabbing corporation like all the rest, in the end.
Odin
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:14 PMi was stupid enough to buy Wii Fit. used it twice now its collecting dust.
I guess with Modern Warfare 2 most 360 owners bought in 1st week.
Andrew Low
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:15 PMGeez, David, if we’re talkin’ top 10, NONE of your games made the list! I’m surprised COD 4 didn’t rate a mention, as it seemed to sell well up to the release of MW2.
Patrick Lum
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:18 PMConsoles dominate? What a surprise!
Gobbo
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:18 PMThese stock photos of people playing Wii make me want to spew.
Andrew
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:23 PMReally surprised to see that Uncharted 2 didn’t make this list.
Zwa
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:44 PMIs it really that surprising considering the make up of the list? The only comparative game to make the charts was AC2 (third person, platforming, killing things), and even then only on the 360 with it’s marginally larger install base.
DansDans
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:24 PMNo Uncharted 2? Wow.. I’m importing all my games from now on from a region that has proper top 10 sales lists
Stinky
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:38 PMI’ll think you’ll find that U2′s Australian sales are par for the rest of the world.
jim
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 3:05 PMI find it disturbing that Uncharted 2, probably the most polished, quality game made to date for a console, was beaten by the overpriced, boring add-on that was ODST.
However I am guilty of purchasing that overpriced, boring add-on. But I think to my credit I did trade it in…
David Wildgoose
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 3:18 PMIt was beaten by ODST in my Games of 2009 top ten, too.
Bruce Abdul-Raouf
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:27 PMI bet the top 5 are all sitting in the corner or in a cupboard with a layer of dust on them right now.
Adam Ruch
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:53 PMIf everyone who owns a PS3 bought Uncharted 2, (which they should!) it still wouldn’t have hit this list I bet. Fact of the matter is there are more people (people not hardcore 1337 gamers) buying videogames than there are hardcore gamers in the world. This isn’t really a bad thing IMO, just means that the very general face of the market is changing. Clearly there still is a market for games like COD4: MW2, but the market for the broader appeal games is, well, broader.
Zwa
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 2:18 PMummm, the results for a single game are split per console. If MW2(ps3) is up there than if every PS3 owner bought UC2 it would also make it up there. (Unless you are suggesting people who don’t own PS3′s are buying the PS3 version of MW2?)
Nick
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:58 PMI do love that the only 2 PC games on the list are WoW and The Sims.
All of my worst fears about the universe just cam true…
Zwa
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 2:23 PMKeep in mind that these don’t include digital download sales (Steam/Impulse/D2D/etc.) which make up a large portion of PC game sales these days (a lot more so than console equivalents).
plmko
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 2:37 PMAnd conveniently L4D2 in America sky-rocket to no.1 if you catch my drift.
Zwa
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 2:56 PMReally. If the small subset of Australians who actually cared enough about L4D2 and its censorship to import it from the US managed to affect their sales charts that much then physical PC sales are in even more dire straights than even the worst estimates I’ve seen.
Dilbert
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:59 PMIt kind of makes me sick that ashes cricket on wii was doing shit until they just called it’wii cricket’ its like people don’t even care what it is they just buy it because its got wii in the title.
oggob
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 2:30 PMIt was never released as Ashes Cricket, it was actually not released with the PS3 & 360 counterparts either.
At the time, it was advised that the Wii version was being held back because it was being rebranded for the holiday season.
The PS3 & 360 versions did alright I’m led to believe, but it would be interesting to know if sales would have been far better, if they were also released during the holiday season, in conjunction with our summer also and not in our winter with the Ashes in England.
DansDans
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 3:05 PMAlso, correct me if I am wrong, but the game is called just plain old vanilla “Cricket” and not Wii Cricket… right?
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 3:07 PMPossibly. I’d know if Namco Bandai had sent me a copy…
oggob
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 3:33 PMCorrect, plain old “Cricket”
http://www.game.com.au/cricket/nintendo-wii/CRICKETWII
just goes to show you don’t need a catchy name to sell…
Matthew Buckner
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 4:19 PMThe Wii version was branded “Ashes 2009″ in the UK as it was here for 360 and PS3. So if you imported or got the import copy from Gametraders you might have “Ashes 2009″ on the cover. The Aussie release was just “Cricket” held back for to be released in summer with the start of the cricket season.
Ben!!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 2:33 PMWhat an ugly list..
Stinky
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 2:59 PMNot a bad show from ODST.
Foxbane
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 3:57 PMNice to see the only pc game there is from the worst series of all time
DansDans
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 4:49 PMThere are two PC games on that list
Symo
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 4:53 PMObservations:
+ The Wii rules but in an extremely narrow band of Nintendo first party and/ or casual games
+ Only AAA proven console titles make the list (and they appear further down than you would expect).
+ All titles are effectively sequels except for Wii Cricket and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics.
+ Consoles have replaced the PC as the platform of choice for FPS’s
Simon
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 5:10 PMI’m so sick of these bloody sales lists that I can’t relate to in any way.
I can’t stand all this casual gamer Wii crap anymore. Give me a list with some real quality games on it.
Ross Colvin
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 6:19 PMi totally agree! this top 20 list is like a Mums shopping list of grocery games, it really shows that the games industry is still immature here, kids want games but its mum and dad’s cash buying them, when i see a point of sale wii games display next to the chewing gum at my milkbar im choosing another hobby.
Jake
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 7:40 PMCome on all you wii haters ease up, Nintendo managed to tap into the casual gamer market really well, good on them. Sony and Microsoft are starting to do the same thing with their new motion tech, next year there will probably be heaps of casual 360 and PS3 games on that list just the same.
gunstar
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 8:13 PMThis list is so backwards.
This means there are a lot of irresposible parent out there.
In America developers are working their ass off to show the world that videogames are entertainment not for kids only but for adults too and Nintendo is breaking it down again. Shame.
Aron Mayo
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 9:11 PMCombine sales of MW2 on 360 and PS3 and you have the number 1 selling game of 2009 I bet. Have to point this out even tho I hated MW2.
diode
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 9:12 PMThis list is so misleading. Only full priced games? The only interesting information this list presents is Nintendo are complete tight-arses when it comes to bringing down prices of titles that have been on the market for ages.
HotDamn!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 10:06 PMWhat…the….fuck. No surprises, right. Go casual…GO! Totally love my Wee though.
Ben
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 12:49 AMThe Wii is for kids. And guess what? Parents buy stuff for their kids. It’s astonishing people other than you buy things, isn’t it?
>_____>
Also the games industry is not less mature because we’re not shooting things as much. The games industry is not less mature because kids are playing games. The games industry is not mature, and having gratuito- sorry, artistic and relevant violence and sex will not make it so.
Symo
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 9:54 AMBen, you really hit the nail on the head. I am sorry that this post replaces yours as the final word.
boc
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 1:57 PMHow does Modern Warfare sell more on 360 if PS3 ranked higher more often? Isn’t the ranking based on sales?
Also, it’s really sad that nearly all the Wii titles are 1st party titles.
David Wildgoose
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 2:03 PMThe 360 version sold a lot more in its first week. Since then the PS3 version has been selling slightly more per week, but has yet to bridge the first week gap.
Rod
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 2:28 PMI’d be curious to see what percentage of these were bundled sales versus individual sales and how the most popular digital distro games compared.
jim
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 2:58 PMWhat strikes me about this list is Australia’s poor taste in games. What happened to the average gamer being over 30 or something? Where did the stat come from? Because if that were true I wouldn’t have expected Nintendo to be so overly represented.