In case there was ever any doubt...

[Gollum]

Halo is indeed a lot more popular in the US than elsewhere, but a 3.5 to 0.5 million ratio would seems too extreme. Halo has sold over 100k copies even in Japan IIRC, and I'm sure it's sold better than that in most bigger european countries. I guess 2.5-3 million copies in NA and 1-1.5 million in the rest of the world are more realistic, but I got no figures whatsoever to back that up...

 

[ultimate_end]

OK guys I'm sorry for the 5 to 1 comment. But I haven't kept up with the sales figures. I didn't know Halo had surpassed 4 million sales

Someone help me out here, as far as i understand 3.5 of those 4 million is in the USA. Only 500.000 copies outside USA. That sounds weird.

Of course it would explain why i have met more PGR, Rallisport etc fans than Halo fans (actually i don't know a single one).

You make an interesting point here. If that is anywhere near true, then not many games would have outsold Halo in North America. Perhaps this partly explains the concentration of excitement I have witnessed.
But take Japan for example. On the 27th of this month, Dragon Quest 8 will, according to Square Enix, sell almost 2.5 million copies on its first day of release. I know the game hasn't been hyped excessively or info kept from the gamers, but the excitement level won't get close to this H2 launch by a long shot. OK maybe japanese gamers aren't as open or something, but still!

 

[PC-Engine]

Don't forget to factor in the installed base of Xbox.

 

[ultimate_end]

Don't forget to factor in the installed base of Xbox.

 

[AlNom]

I'm sure us Canadians make some sort of difference in xbox -> Halo sales...

 

[hey69]

canadians,.. the funny people in southpark

 

[marconelly!]

so that'd require San Andreas to sell about 25 million copies, which isn't really possible IMHO.

Probably not. Vice City sold 13 millions copies, GTA3 sold 11. Those are the wordlwide numbers, and are taken from Take Two's recent report. It's easily conceivable that GTA:SA will sell at least 15 though. So far it's been selling much faster than GTA:VC everywhere.

Apparently, it sold between 2.2 and 2.5M just on it's first day.

To say that this is unprecedented is the understatement of the century. You didn't see this for GTA San Andreas, despite the fact that it will outsell Halo 2 by at least 5 copies to 1.

The only other game that had these obscene levels of hype was MGS2, and much of it was orchestrated by Sony, just like it's done with Halo 2 by Microsoft. With MGS2, it actually ended up hurting the game, after all was said and done, IMO.

 

[jarrod]

Halo has sold over 100k copies even in Japan IIRC,

Nope, Halo moved around 75k in Japan. It's the 3rd best selling Xbox game there behind DOA3 & DOAX.

Probably not. Vice City sold 13 millions copies, GTA3 sold 11. Those are the wordlwide numbers, and are taken from Take Two's recent report. It's easily conceivable that GTA:SA will sell at least 15 though. So far it's been selling much faster than GTA:VC everywhere.

Don't forget that those GTA3 and VC numbers also include the PC & Xbox ports. San Andreas won't be pushing 15M on PS2 alone...

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Halo just passed the 5 million mark about a month ago. It has sold roughly 3.7 million in North America and about 1.3 million elsewhere. I'm betting that GTA:SA will hit around 16 million and Halo 2 about 8 million. That would be 2:1 instead of 5:1. My reasoning is pretty simple: about 1 in 3 Xbox owners bought Halo and I think the Xbox will end up somewhere around 24 million units.

Halo is a brilliant game. Not to everyone's tastes (only 33% as I stated earlier), which is why MS needs more to bring in other types of gamers to Xenon. Splinter Cell, Project Gotham, MechAssault and SW: KOTOR were all great games in the Xbox lineup. Some avid PC gamers would disagree, I'm sure, but console-only gamers got a lot more choice besides Halo when they purchased their Xbox. The Xbox has two main deficiancies: no great platformers (BLiNX is good, but not great, Rare acquisition was meant to take care of this) and no Japanese RPGs.

 

[marconelly!]

Don't forget that those GTA3 and VC numbers also include the PC & Xbox ports

How much did those two games sell on PC and Xbox?

 

[Xeno]

I'm sure us Canadians make some sort of difference in xbox -> Halo sales...

According to a news report last month 500,000 of the Halo2 pre-orders were Canadian.That's probably because each time you call or enter an EB games store the staff will ask you if you want to pre-order a copy of Halo2 and they go on about how it's the best game ever.The walls and windows being covered in Halo2 posters doesnt help either

I think Halo2 is (absurdly) over hyped especially for an FPS.

 

[Xeno]

Don't forget that those GTA3 and VC numbers also include the PC & Xbox ports

How much did those two games sell on PC and Xbox?

GTA VC on PS2 sold over 13 million units beating out GT3 A-Spec (including bundles) which had 12.9-13 million units, source gamespot.

 

[zurich]

I'm sure us Canadians make some sort of difference in xbox -> Halo sales...

According to a news report last month 500,000 of the Halo2 pre-orders were Canadian.That's probably because each time you call or enter an EB games store the staff will ask you if you want to pre-order a copy of Halo2 and they go on about how it's the best game ever.The walls and windows being covered in Halo2 posters doesnt help either

I think Halo2 is (absurdly) over hyped especially for an FPS.

Xbox and PS2 are roughly 50/50 here in Canada, last I heard. Live is pretty big here too.

 

[wazoo]

IMO Halo is the Final Fantasy 7 of this generation. Love it or hate it, the game brought a new level of production values and polish to the console FPS, exactly the same as FF7 did for console RPGs. And like that game, it brought mass market appeal to its genre.

Halo is not the FF7 of this gen, it is the Golden Eye of this gen and has yet to reach the same sales level. Love or hate it, but GE brought FPS to the masses.

 

[jarrod]

Don't forget that those GTA3 and VC numbers also include the PC & Xbox ports

How much did those two games sell on PC and Xbox?

I'm not sure about PC sales (they've always been lumped with the PS2 totals in PR) but the Xbox Double Pack has probably moved around 1.5M worldwide.

GTA VC on PS2 sold over 13 million units beating out GT3 A-Spec (including bundles) which had 12.9-13 million units, source gamespot.

GT3 actually holds the top spot for PS2 games. It's also outsold both PS2 GTA games in Europe, where it's moved over 7 million units alone iirc. Where does Gamespot credit their numbers to?

Xbox and PS2 are roughly 50/50 here in Canada, last I heard. Live is pretty big here too.

Er last numbers I heard (which were March 2004 iirc from NPD Canada) had PS2 at 2.2 million and Xbox at 900k... perhaps you meant Xbox and GameCube were 50/50 in Canada.

Halo is not the FF7 of this gen, it is the Golden Eye of this gen and has yet to reach the same sales level. Love or hate it, but GE brought FPS to the masses.

Yeah, there's definitely more parallels with GE... only Halo is about half as successful on a machine that's about half as successful as N64.

 

[-tkf-]

The only data i could find is from a post in July

This list only covers North America

1. 5,973,585 PS2 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Rockstar)
2. 5,359,004 PS2 Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar)
3. 3,471,837 PS2 Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (Sony)
4. 3,370,794 PS2 Madden NFL 2004 (Electronic Arts)
5. 3,247,316 XBX Halo (Microsoft)
--- 2,719,667 PS2 Madden NFL 2003 (Electronic Arts)
--- 2,267,340 GCN Super Smash Brothers Melee (Nintendo)
--- 2,154,567 PS2 SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs (Sony)
--- 2,099,665 PS2 Final Fantasy X (Square-Enix)
10. 2,069,487 PS2 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (Activision)
--- 2,059,385 PS2 Medal of Honor Frontline (Electronic Arts)
--- 2,008,501 PS2 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Konami)
--- 2,000,397 PS2 Madden NFL 2002 (Electronic Arts)
--- 1,987,303 PS2 Kingdom Hearts (Square-Enix)
15. 1,916,337 PS2 Need for Speed: Underground (Electronic Arts)
--- 1,811,531 PS2 Spider-Man (Activision)
--- 1,629,323 PS2 ATV Offroad Fury (Sony)
--- 1,621,895 PS2 NBA Street (Electronic Arts)
--- 1,590,385 PS2 Jak and Daxter (Sony)
20. 1,575,792 GCN Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Nintendo)
--- 1,551,025 PS2 Max Payne (Rockstar)
--- 1,542,814 PS2 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai (Atari)
--- 1,523,400 PS2 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (Activision)
--- 1,507,972 PS2 Midnight Club: Street Racing (Rockstar)
--- 1,505,255 GCN Super Mario Sunshine (Nintendo)
--- 1,466,385 GCN Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Nintendo)
--- 1,441,283 PS2 Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex (Vivendi Universal)
--- 1,432,977 XBX Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (UbiSoft)
--- 1,398,057 PS2 James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire (Electronic Arts)
30. 1,379,752 GCN Luigi's Mansion (Nintendo)

 

[ultimate_end]

Probably not. Vice City sold 13 millions copies, GTA3 sold 11. Those are the wordlwide numbers, and are taken from Take Two's recent report. It's easily conceivable that GTA:SA will sell at least 15 though. So far it's been selling much faster than GTA:VC everywhere.

Oh dear. Me = owned
I don't know where I read that 16 million sales figure .

I will downgrade my San Andreas prediction to 17 million worldwide sales (including PC and Japan sales)total over the next three years.

Also, Halo has indeed surpassed 5 million sales. If Halo 2 sells maybe 5.7 million total, then that would be a ratio of 3 to 1.

 

[Paul]

HEY! HEY YOU, IN CASE THERE WAS ANY DOUBT, I FUCKED YOUR MOM LAST NIGHT!

 

[ultimate_end]

Something interesting from Gamespot:

Long terms prospects for sales of Halo 2 are mostly rosy. Industry analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities told Reuters, "I'd say 60 percent penetration on the console is a good number, so you're looking at 10 million copies worldwide." He estimates half that amount would sell through in the game's first month at retail.

Thats more than a few

I will stop talking out of my a$$ from now on, I promise.