Top Ten Bestselling Videogames of All Time

[maantren]

With the ability to read an entire article instead of just parts of it and looking for faults, look what I found in the opening few lines.

Research firm NPD has released its list of the bestselling console videogames of all time, and you may be surprised which games made it.

NPD has been tracking U.S. videogame sales data since 1995 and it just recently released the list of the top selling games in that region.

With ten years as a fulltime professional writer under my belt, including running two magazines and being accountable for journalism standards in them, I find the headline, opening line, and second line of the article all contradict each other. I read the article, checked the sources, and also know a little about how videogame sales stats are generated and manipulated. The errors are minor but they'd be caught in a tight newsroom: The Escapist does make a lot of noise about holding themselves to a higher standard than the tweener gaming sites...

Cheers


Colin

 

[ranger19]

Interesting read. I'm surprised Wii Sports isn't on that list, or some other games usually mentioned for high sales - maybe this list was not counting games bundled with consoles?

Also, I find it unbelievable that Modern Warfare 2, have only been out for about three months, is already the fourth highest selling game of all time. Think about that for a sec.. that's just incredible.

 

[Yvl9921]

Wait... no World of Warcraft? No Mario 3? I knew the casual market was big but DAMN.

Console games only. Which is why there's no WoW and no Sims.

Ahhh, right, missed that.

 

[elricik]

Does Wii play even qualify as a game? I mean honestly, who bought the game so that you could bowl in your living room and not because of the controller?

 

[Steppin Razor]

With ten years as a fulltime professional writer under my belt, including running two magazines and being accountable for journalism standards in them, I find the headline, opening line, and second line of the article all contradict each other. I read the article, checked the sources, and also know a little about how videogame sales stats are generated and manipulated.

Ah bugger I forgot to edit my comment. I studied journalism for a while before deciding that's not what I wanted to do, so I know where you're coming from with the lines contradicting one another. I just assumed your comment was from another smart arse trying to be funny, so I apologise for that.

The errors are minor but they'd be caught in a tight newsroom: The Escapist does make a lot of noise about holding themselves to a higher standard than the tweener gaming sites...

And fair enough, I take back what I said. I don't really read many of the news articles on here, so I didn't know they hold themselves to a higher standard. I have to disagree slightly with you there though, since all forms of news are in serious decline lately. There's been a large increase lately in doubling up of paragraphs, incorrect spelling and grammar and corrections from where they've quoted someone wrong.

 

[manaman]

Isn't elitism great? People can continually see the Wii and Wii games on top of sales charts and still bash it.

The Wii is bashed because it's not really a "gamer's" console. The Wii titles that made the list kinda reinforces that. If Twilight Princess made the list, then yeah, you'd have a point, but for now, viva la elitism.

Oh sorry I didn't realize Mario Kart wasn't a game. Trying to say causal gamers are not gamers is taking elitism to a whole new level of stupid.

 

[FlyAwayAutumn]

meh, mixed feelings. a couple (three) deserve the spots, the others, really not so much. I'm more curious to see the top ten worst selling videogames of all time.

And then everyone would be confused because they would've never heard of those games, because nobody bought them.

But this list... I hardly believe this list. From my own personal experiences this isn't even close to what I would expect the list to be like.

 

[Arcticflame]

Saying wii play is the top selling game of all time is like saying minesweeper is the most sold game of all time because it comes with Windows.

It's complete guff.

 

[zagazsano]

Very very shocking list for me, I mean, seriously, Wii Play? xD
Not surprised by those 3 Call of Duty Titles on there.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Huh wii fit is up there. I find that interesting

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Gotta agree about the Wii Play placement, not so surprised that a Madden title made it onto the list. It's one of the best selling series in history and it's easy to tell that one of the games would make it. I'm also not surprised that the latest installments of Call of Duty made the list.

 

[LewsTherin]

disappointing.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Problem is that the later games were brought out, the larger sales they'll get simply by virtue of there being more gamers around. Game quality factoring into sales drops away when there are simply hundreds of thousands of more people willing to play video games today than ten or fifteen years ago.

think of how many more games are out now though, there are so many games out across alot of different systems, back in the day there weren't so many games, i do agree on your opinion somewhat, but those games have also been out for a much longer time, so those sales have built up over time from old and new gamers getting them



OT: im kind of suprised there is so much wii but so many people bag on it..personall i love it, but im just suprised their wasn't a halo game, and that all those COD's made it on there, thats just ridiculous...and no zelda??

 

[toapat]

the simple fact is that none of those games have outsold WoW, The Sims, or Starcraft.

 

[SimuLord]

The only game on that list that I own is San Andreas, but then I'm a PC gamer and 98% of my purchases are for PC, which that list doesn't count.

Interesting list, and quite possibly proof that putting the right item in a package will greatly boost its sales.

 

[Xylon Lionheart]

The list apparently also does not include games that possibly come pre-packaged with the systems or handheld games. Using VGChartz for comparison, both Nintendogs and New Super Mario Bros. has currently outsold Mario Kart Wii, not even including everything Mario Kart Wii outsold. In addition, Wii Sports is the game that has been sold the most at a total of almost sixty million copies. In Japan it is sold separately with the system as well and is still probably the most bought game in Japan. Finally, I know the list only goes up to 1995, but by doing so it is omitting huge titles like Super Mario Bros., which sold over 40 million units, and Super Mario Bros. 3, which sold over 18 million copies.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Namco Museum? Really? Right on!

 

[ottenni]

Yeah wii fit. Something we can all do for free! But then again you can buy bottled water, and packaged air for that matter.

 

[shaun832]

I'm not entirely surprised with Namco Museum because it has apparantly been released for every major console since the Nintendo 64.