Top 50 Seventh Gen Games (all platforms)

[Khuutra]

11. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - 17.58 million sold Bet you didn't think it would fall out of the top ten that fast - but here we are. Diamond and Pearl has finally slowed down, selling a still-very-respectable 90k since June, and is likely on its last legs. Most of its weekly sales have been picked up by Heart Gold and Soul Silver, which continues to sell frightening numbers every week. And for the record: Black and White's opening in Japan blew Diamond and Pearl's away. There's no real indication of whether or not that will translate into sustained lifetime sales, but we'll find out in the next year or so. June Writeup: Diamond and Pearl are holding onto their top 10 spot by a comfortable margin of 2 million or so units, but that's not as big as it sounds when you consider tha its nearest competitor is selling over a hundred thousand units a week. Diamond and Pearl showed that the Pokemon franchise was still going strong, but it remains to be seen if Black and White will even begin to approximate its sale numbers.

12. New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 15.85 million sold This game continues to climb, selling over 60k units this week and averaging 300k per month since June. Traditionally Mario platformers have considerable boosts during the holidays, but will it be enough to propel this game into the top ten? Well, probably not. But it will be a lot closer. June Writeup: The fastest-selling single SKU piece of video game software of all time, it reached 10 million faster than any other SKU and will likely break 20 million at the same blistering rate. Whether or not it will outsell its predecessor is up in the air, but the game has been screaming up the list since it was released and won't stop until it's embedded deep in the top ten. Mario's back.

13. Brain Age 2 - 14.90 million sold Not much to report for Brain Age 2, sorry to say. By the end of this holiday it should pass up 15 million units sold and then quietly settle into a much lower-selling routine. June Writeup: The sequel to Brain Age didn't sell as well as the first one and will likely die off sooner, but if the worst thing you can say about a game is that it "only" managed to sell 15 million units then that game is doing pretty well for itself.

14. Grand Theft Auto IV - 14.76 million sold 7.98 Xbox 360, 6.78 PS3 GTAIV continues to sell briskly, showing that Red Dead Redemption isn't entirely sating people's needs for a sandbox game. June Writeup: Once hailed as the game of the generation, its sales supported this claim for a long time. It's fallen out of the top ten since its release, but it holds doggedly onto its place in the top 20 and continues to sell to this day, passing up Modern Warfare since the last revision of this list. Grand Theft Auto may no longer be the poster child of the core gamer movement, but it's still an almost elemental force to be reckoned with.

15. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 14.63 million sold 8.44 million Xbox 360, 5.36 million PS3, 0.83 million DS Possibly the biggest surprise for this update is that the original Modern Warfare continues to sell very well, moving over 200k since June. This suggests that World at War and Modern Warfare 2 were not entirely able to cut out its legs, though I don't know if that's because of its multiplayer community or not. June Writeup: This is the game that broke the image of core gamers in the industry, bringing first person shooters to the forefront of consoles in a way that no other shooter franchise had ever done - up to and including Halo. It was passed up by Grand Theft Auto in the past few months but it continues to sell a few copies here and there, and most likely won't fall out of the top 20 before the end of the generation.

16. Wii Fit Plus - 13.76 million sold While Wii Fit Plus has yet to climb a place since the last version of this list (and most likely won't, with Black Ops releasing in a few weeks), the game continues to sell on pace with the original and should pass up Modern Warfare within the next few months. June Writeup: The sequel to the best-selling fitness game has set a blistering pace for itself, continuing to sell very well after a year of release. Its chances of outselling its predecessor seem very low, but it's really hard to tell with games like this one. It should continue to climb the list, in either case.

17. Call of Duty: World at War - 12.92 million sold 6.49 Xbox 360, 4.20 PS3, 1.56 Wii, 0.67 DS Like its older brother Modern Warfare, World at War continues to show very respectable legs. 14 million units lifetime is definitely not out of the question, here. June Writeup: Sort of the least-influential of the Call of Duty games in the post-Modern Warfare era, the fact that it still broke over 12 million copies while being set during World War 2 is a testament to the power of the brand and the appeal of the game's mechanics.

18. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games - 12.47 million sold 7.64 Wii, 4.83 DS Mario & Sonic seem to finally be slowing down after a very solid run, having sold roughly 80 thousand units since June. We can probably expect one more solid holiday boost out of this game, but sales seem to have shifted toward the Winter Olympics, now. June Writeup: Oh man, do you guys remember when we laughed about SEGA predicting this game would sell four million combined? I remember. Don't pretend you don't remember! Since then it's gone on to more than triple SEGA's expectations, becoming the best-selling game that Sonic has ever featured in and the best-selling game that SEGA has ever published. That's not something you say every day.

19. Animal Crossing: Wild World - 11.31 million sold Like Mario & Sonic, Animal Crossing: Wild World has slowed down. That's probably not surprising, since the game is considerably older, and maybe it's impressive since it's still averaging about 20 thousand units a month. Tell you what: I don't think another Animal Crossing is going to pass this one up any time soon. June Writeup: This is perhaps a testament to the power of ideas that are really hard for the average gamer to grasp. Animal Crossing isn't really about anything at all: you go around your town cleaning up and doing odd jobs, and there's no real set goal or enemies or anything! The simple relaxing simplicity of its setting, design, and gameplay have still managed to launch it into the top 20, and it continues to sell years after release. It's probably going to be knocked out of the top 20 before all's said and done - I'm just not sure by what.

20. Halo 3 - 11.18 million sold Master Chief has had a better run than anyone could have anticipated, and has managed over 50 thousand units a month since June. Given more time, it could have probably reached 12 million, but Reach will ultimately cut the game's legs out from under it - but then, maybe not, right? Its days in the top 20 are numbered: it will be only a matter of weeks before Call of Duty: Black Ops pushes it out. Modern Warfare 2 on the 360 has surpassed it as the best-selling FPS on a single platform. It remains to be seen if Reach will be able to climb so high, but if this game's persistent multiplayer community has anything to say about it, it's going to be a Hell of a fight. June Writeup: Master Chief's last stand ended up being the best-selling game in the franchise by an almost ludicrous margin, and continues to hold the title of best-selling shooter on a single console. Modern Warfare 2 on the 360 will probably pass it up soon, but that does not detract from this game's enormous sales, which has translated into an enormous and very devoted community.