2008's 60 Biggest Sellers

[liolio]

Hi dear Mods,
I found out this interesting subject on edge online about best saling titles of the last 12 months (it's their estimate), but I don't know where to post it so I chose an active topic sales related
I'm sure you will find the proper place for this.
http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-60-biggest-selling-games-last-12-months?page=0,0
It's quiet interesting I'm impressed by the lego series (indiana + batman) sales >6 millions.

Using a variety of sources, we try to estimate sales of games across North America and Europe.

 

[AlNom]

Hope this helps. Thanks for the link.

 

[AntShaw]

It's interesting that the whole bottom half are within 1-1.5 mil. Which is a fair success for most of those titles listed there. Shocking to see what i expected as some big hitters, down there, and games that I never would of imagine to sell 200k sell 1mil. But, I guess this is WW estimates.

Iron Man - 2 mil?? WHOA

GTA IV - A LOT

 

[obonicus]

Surprised at MGS4's reported sales, as I had heard more, but I suppose it makes sense, if you round down.

We know that NPD reported over 1,076k million for 2008, Media Create for 2008 has the game at 686k. I have no idea how big Europe is, but even supposing it's as big as the US (which I doubt) it's several hundred thousand short of 3 million.

Otherwise a fairly depressing, if unsurprising list. I am sorta happy that GTA4 is still top seller, though.

 

[2real4tv]

WHOA at Star Wars Force Unleashed I did not know they did that well

 

[Shifty Geezer]

We know that NPD reported over 1,076k million for 2008, Media Create for 2008 has the game at 686k. I have no idea how big Europe is, but even supposing it's as big as the US (which I doubt).

I dunno about the MGS franchise, but as a global market the US is actually the smallest market according to a report at GI.biz.

According to research compiled by Nielsen Games, the European Union is the second-largest videogaming territory in the world.

Gaming generated EUR 7.3 billion (USD 11.4 billion) in the European Union during 2007, compared with EUR 7.4 billion (USD 11.5 billion) in Asia and EUR 6.9 billion (USD 10.7 billion) in the United States.

 

[AlNom]

I dunno about the MGS franchise, but as a global market the US is actually the smallest market according to a report at GI.biz.

Curious, would they account for VAT/sales tax in these figures (not that it would be easy to add to the US figure, but perhaps subtract from regions that include VAT... see where I'm going with this). At any rate, the three regions are fairly similar in scope!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It would be stupid not too, but I've no idea what research methods they used and what mistakes could be there. Also it says 'Gaming market' and seeing the Asian market topping the bill, this clearly includes PC MMOs and probably mobiles too.

Edit : Just to confuse this issue, this from GI.biz today.

US videogame market topped $21 billion in 2008

100% growth in one year? I think not

 

[obonicus]

I dunno about the MGS franchise, but as a global market the US is actually the smallest market according to a report at GI.biz.

Actually, I just realized that this is just NA and Europe. So that's ~2 million + 700k Europe + other scattered tiny market, which may add up to the 3 million I had heard.

Mario Kart Wii, if we include Japan, is up to ~13 million, and Wii Fit up to 12 million. GTA4 sold about 230k in Japan, on both platforms.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

This is only a guesstimates that Edge Online people have done, its completely worthless, you might aswell just read VGchartz, which are just as uneducated guesstimates as the ones shown here...


Imo this is a completely worthless list, some one should take it on themselves to make a proper list based on proper sources or just dont bother.

No\little data + guesstimates = bullshit

Its particularly interesting that they haven't even bothered to check financial reports for the largest publishers, as the numbers Edge online estimate and financial reports are in some cases rather well off the mark.

Lets take Ubisoft as an example:
Reported sales from Ubisoft Q3 statement:
Far Cry 2 - 2,9 million
Rayman Raving Rabbits - 1.5 million
Shaun White snowboarding - 2.3 mill
Prince of Persia - 2.2 mill

Edge online:
Shaun White Snowboarding (includes Roadtrip) 1.8 million (21,7% below ubisoft)
Far Cry 2 - 2.1 million (27,5% below ubisoft)
Prince of Persia 1.1 mill (50% below ubisoft)
Rayman raving rabbits - NOT LISTED (althought serveral titles with 1.0 mill sales are listed)

 

[zed]

very few exclusives on the list, even wii games, I count

wii - 5 exclusive
ps3 - 4 exclusive
xbox360 - 3 exclusive

Im pretty sure this is a lower percentage than in years past

 

[Cheezdoodles]

How can you be sure?

This list does not list just games, it lists in some cases franchises (all Guitar Hero titles are one game on this list), and they sales across all platform together.

Not only that but also, because its completely random what titles are listed below place 40. There are plenty of titles that sold between 1-2 million copies that are not on this list.

By throwing all sales across all platforms together for each particular game, exclusive titles automatically get a pretty bad starting point, add the randomness as to what titles are actually listed on this list, and i dont think you really can get anything relevant from saying that the percentage is lower than in the past, even if we would compare it to Edge Onlines bs estimates for 2007.