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1. Wii Sports - 47.77 million sold
The most heavily bundled game of all time, but largely thanks to how much it pushed
Wii hardware sales. With Nintendo not backing off of the traditional Wii Sports bundle,
even though the game seems irrelevant in the wake of Wii Sports Resort, the original
Wii Sports' all time sales record will just grow.
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2. Wii Play - 24.20 million sold
Essentially a $10 game with the purchase of a Wii remote, this game enjoyed
a bizarrely long run in top 10 sales charts around the world. It has dropped off as
Wii sales have slowed in the last several months, but even in a worst case scenario,
it still will reach original Pokemon level of sales at 30+ million.
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3. Nintendogs - 22.74 million sold
The game that made Shigeru Miyamoto's last 15 years look like
a series of false starts and missteps--it has outsold Super Mario 64,
Ocarina of Time and the entire Pikmin series combined. It also passed the
original Pokemon by more than 2 million units in the "others" regions.
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4. Wii Fit - 22.08 million sold
The most impressive sales run of the generation, it has done what Wii Play
and Nintendogs did, but at a price of $90. Its sales will stop as quickly as they took off
in the next few weeks, as it is replaced by an enhanced version, Wii Fit Plus,
which will probably not take long to reach this top 50.
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5. New Super Mario Bros. - 19.42 million sold
The long awaited return to 2-D Mario platforming benefitted from the development
of the European market to outsell even the classic Mario games which were bundled
at launch of new Nintendo hardware; first Super Mario Land, and next Super Mario World,
which is just over 1 million units away.
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6. Brain Age - 17.81 million sold
Initially viewed as a strange Japanese phenomenon, Japan is now it's lowest selling region
at "only" 4 million. Over 9 million sales come from the "others" regions. The game sits at
the $20 price point, and has watched countless other games for every home system
fall from $50 or $60 right past it into the $10 bargain bin.
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7. Mario Kart Wii - 17.44 million sold
A big breakthrough for a series that was already massively popular.
The game has the classic arcade gameplay you'd expect, is packed with content
and comes with a Wii Wheel, but even with plenty of reasons for good sales,
its course for 25 million lifetime is still astounding.
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8. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - 17.05 million sold
This game broke the trend of decline for the Pokemon series, outselling GBA's Ruby/Sapphire.
With HeartGold/SoulSilver's million unit launch in Japan, the Pokemon fad... still isn't a fad.
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9. Mario Kart DS - 15.81 million sold
There have been 6 Mario Kart games in history, and none have been slouches,
each reaching at least 5 million in sales. But the Wii and DS version now combine
for over half the series sales with 33 million and counting.
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10. Brain Age 2 - 14.04 million sold
I swear this is an all-platforms list. Brain Age's sequel completes a Nintendo sweep of the top 10,
but the next 10 kicks off with the biggest of the HD exclusives.
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11. Grand Theft Auto IV - 13.06 million sold
(7.22M on X360, 5.84M on PS3)
The fourth consecutive main series GTA game to cruise past the 10 million sales milestone,
one of the best-reviewed games of all time, and attached to 23% of HD consoles,
this game cemented GTA as one of the elite series in videogame history.
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12. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 12.98 million sold
(7.78M on X360, 4.59M on PS3, ...and .61M on DS?)
A simple change of setting was the basis for this unprecedented breakthrough that became
the best-selling FPS of all time. The success of the game was all the more spectacular
for coming in a head-to-head battle with former franchise king Halo, and helped
propel Activision to become the 7th gen's biggest third party.
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13. Mario and Sonic at Olympic Games - 11.58 million sold
(7.16M on Wii, 4.42M on DS)
So SEGA lands the Olympics license, they call up Nintendo, and the rest is history.
This piece of history outsold every Madden, FIFA and PES game.
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14. Call of Duty: World at War - 11.11 million sold
(5.87 X360, 3.55 PS3, 1.26 Wii, .43 DS)
So WWII is supposed to be passe, and Infinity Ward is supposed to be the varsity team,
but nobody told Treyarch. While CoD4 was better received, this game came closer to CoD4
than anybody thought it would, and will be remembered for it's Nazi Zombie cooperative mode.
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15. Animal Crossing: Wild World - 11.01 million sold
The Gamecube game was popular, but this was the version of Animal Crossing that broke
through to Sims-like popularity, and accounts for 60% of the series sales.
It is also the 7th DS game to cross the 10 million sales mark, a record for any console.
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16. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - 10.49 million sold
(4.29 Wii, 4.26 X360, 1.94 PS3)
Along with CoD4, this is the other game that Activision's 7th gen domination is based on.
They acquired the series after GH2, and did little but treat it like one of the most popular
game franchises in the world, which it soon became. Throw in the PS2 version of the game,
and GHIII has topped 15 million sales.
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17. Halo 3 - 10.17 million sold
The original Halo was a beloved game which grew hugely popular through word of mouth.
For the sequel, Microsoft launched the largest hype campaign in history, and the game
backed it up, and outperformed the first. For Halo 3, Microsoft repeated the trick.
Halo has become the mega-franchise that just gets bigger and bigger.
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18. Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 8.63 million sold
This series just keeps getting bigger too. In fact with Brawl, the franchise mash-up series
became more popular than almost all of the series being mashed-up. It is close to outselling
the original Donkey Kong Country, which would leave just Mario and Pokemon with
higher selling games among featured characters.
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19. Super Mario Galaxy - 8.12 million sold
Most of Nintendo's 7th gen mega-hits have not been critical darlings, but this is
the huge exception, with 28 perfect scores, and an average of 97% listed on Metacritic.
It bounced back in sales from the comparative failure of Mario Sunshine, too,
though legs don't seem strong enough to keep it in the top 20 by generation's end.
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20. Assassin's Creed - 7.99 million sold
(4.53M on X360, 3.46M on PS3)
In an age of sequels, Assassin's Creed was an ambitious new franchise launch,
which as you can see from this list, outperformed nearly everything except the
biggest established franchises. It's success was no doubt very important to Ubisoft
as they have so far avoided the financial issues that EA, Take-2 and THQ are mired in.
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21. Super Mario 64 DS - 7.75 million sold
Year-in and year-out sales of over 1 million add up to an impressive total for
this DS launch game. SM64DS has now sold 65% of what the original game sold.
It still has a shot at 10 million sales, and if it reaches that mark,
it will likely be the slowest game to ever do so.
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22. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga - 7.54 million sold
(2.80M for DS, 2.78M for Wii, 1.24M for X360, .72M for PS3)
This game has enjoyed massive legs, especially on Wii and DS, where it has made
surprise showings in the NPD rankings in 2009--it launched for holiday 2007.
It is the 5th and 7th best-selling third party game for Wii and DS, respectively.
(The game is not on PS2, so this 7.54 million is the whole ball of wax.)
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23. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures - 7.43 million sold
(3.41M for X360, 1.48M for DS, 1.27M for Wii, 0.69M for PSP, 0.58M for PS3)
(The name of this game is so long I had to drop it into 14pt type.)
The prominent XBox 360 bundle would not have been needed for this game
to easily rank in the top 50. The PS2 version was the 4th different version to sell
1 million units, bringing total sales to just south of 8.5 million.
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24. Guitar Hero: World Tour - 6.77 million sold
(3.20M for Wii, 2.21M for X360, 1.36M for PS3)
The PS2 version also sold 1 million, bringing total sales to just above 8 million.
Most publishers and developers would give their firstborn for an 8 million copy selling
game with a three-digit price tag, but for Guitar Hero, that's a 45% unit sales decline.
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25. Mario Party 8 - 6.68 million sold
Yes. Really. This snuck into the top 25. Mario Party is probably not a game many people
buy a system for, but the series must have built up a lot of big fans and a great brand
during the N64 and Gamecube years, and this game got to reap the rewards.
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26. FIFA 09 - 6.33 million sold
(2.33M for PS3, 2.00M for X360, .91M for PSP, .71M for Wii, .38M for DS)
You knew the annual sports games would start showing up somewhere.
FIFA 09 is the highest ranking FIFA for the 5 current gen systems, but the
only systems which did not decline from 08 were PS3 and XBox 360.
The PS2 version pushes the total to 8.26 million.
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27. Big Brain Academy - 6.25 million sold
In the shadow of Brain Age, this game is doomed to become a forgotten classic...
...one which was secretly also a mega-hit in its own right.
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28. FIFA 08 - 6.06 million sold
(1.67M for PS3, 1.45M for X360, 1.13M for PSP, .98M for Wii, .83M for DS)
Including PS2, this game was actually a bigger hit than FIFA 09, topping 9 million units.
That's a bad sign for EA, as some PS2 FIFA gamers may have drifted away
rather than transitioned to current gen.
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29. Mario Party DS - 6.03 million sold
This is the 9th and final game with a big picture of Italian-American stereotype Mario on the cover
to make this list. Those 9 include a Party title, a Kart title and a 3D platformer for each DS and Wii,
plus Mario and Sonic, Smash Bros, and NSMB. Those 9 account for 101 million sales,
more than even the 4 Wii-brand titles on the list which include rankings 1, 2 and 4.
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30. Pokemon Platinum - 5.94 million sold
This is the 11th of 13 DS exclusives on the list. DS also has the highest selling version
of three multi-platform games on the list, and a total of 29 of the top 50 games
of the generation have some sort of DS version.
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31. Gears of War - 5.91 million sold
In 2006, XBox 360 was not the XBox 360 we know today. Sales were slow,
there was no must-have game, and all eyes were on Sony and Nintendo's upcoming systems.
360 was launched for holiday 2005 on the promise of Halo, and likely would have declined
from the original XBox if that was all that was delivered. Then came Gears of War.
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32. Madden NFL 09 - 5.90 million sold
(2.34M for X360, 1.62M for PS3, .88M for Wii, .77M for PSP, .29M for DS)
2008 was the year that Madden was supposed to break through on Wii, thanks to All-Play.
Instead, Wii sales declined from the year prior, but Madden broke through on PS3 instead,
thanks to an increased install base, which makes the difference for 09 outranking 08.
With PS2 and XB sales, the total is 7.34 million.
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33. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - 5.87 million sold
(1.85M for X360, 1.24M for PS3, 1.39M for Wii, .72M for PSP, .67M for DS)
Yeah. And the PS2 version sold a million copies too, leaving the total just short of 7 million.
To be blunt, maybe this is an instance where the sales lived up to the hype, but the game did not.
By most accounts it is a good action game with a good concept, and it obviously had
a great brand and a big marketing push, but I doubt it will stand the test of time.
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34. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - 5.80 million sold
The PS2 version of LCS sold over 3 million, bringing total sales to over 9 million.
When the spin-off side game sells 9 million, and the franchise jumps ship to a
competing console, that's a big franchise. I lost count how many games based in
Liberty City have been sold somewhere between 30 and 40 million.
The only PSP exclusive on the list.
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35. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 5.32 million sold
This game's development ended bizarrely, with the mirroring of the entire game world.
In the end, it was not a game which left fans of the series in awe, as Mario Galaxy did.
But the hype train rolls on for the next Zelda Wii, based on a single piece of artwork.
With the Gamecube version, sales are 6.88 million.
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36. Kung Fu Panda - 5.25 million sold
(3.02M for X360, 1.10M for DS, .74M for Wii, .39M for PS3)
You knew Wii Sports would be #1, but it's really the XBox 360 pack-ins messing up the list.
Microsoft insists on pushing the 360 as a family console, but when the best choice
for a family pack-in is a movie game that launched on 5 systems, and earned
an uninspiring 75 on metacritic, what's the point? PS2 adds a half mil.
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37. Need for Speed: ProStreet - 5.22 million sold
(2.01M for X360, 1.70M for PS3, .87M for Wii, .54M for PSP, .10M for DS)
As you have no doubt forgotten, ProStreet was the 2007 version of NfS.
Like the annual sports games, it was not until 2007 that the current systems had
the install base to land a game on this list, but unlike the annual sports games,
the 2008 edition, Undercover, does not make the list at all. Almost 7.5M with PS2.
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38. Gears of War 2 - 5.21 million sold
After Halo 3 and Gears 1, this is the third and final 360 exclusive on the list.
Those 3 have amassed 21 million sales. The top 6 games on 360, including these 3, GTA,
Modern Warfare and World at War, have sold 42 million, establishing as strong an identity for 360
as any console has ever had. If you like to kick ass with a gun on the internet, you own a 360.
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39. Madden NFL 08 - 5.15 million sold
(2.41M for X360, .94M for Wii, .93M for PS3, .65M for PSP, .22M for DS)
Lower than 09 on this list, but just like FIFA, when including the last gen systems,
08 actually sold better. Versions for PS2, XBox and GC push the total up to 7.63 million.
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40. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 - 4.89 million sold
(1.74M for PS3, 1.21M for X360, 1.01M for Wii, .84M for PSP, .09M for DS)
The PS2 version sold a bonkers 3.42 million, meaning this game reached over 8 million buyers.
PES 2009 has reached less than 6 million, and less than 4 million on current gen systems.
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41. MySims - 4.88 million sold
(3.43M for DS, 1.45M for Wii)
There was no banner for this game, so I took the pic for MySims Kingdom.
Kingdom was the 2008 sequel which sold almost 2 million. Annual sequels are okay,
but in 2009, EA has released MySims Party, Racing, and Agents. Why make
a better game when you can release a different spin-off in 4 consecutive quarters?
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42. Resident Evil 5 - 4.78 million sold
(2.45M for PS3, 2.33M for X360)
The rare blockbuster to do better on PS3. This game is a litmus test for Capcom's
current strategy: if you love it, you love them, but if you wish it were a more traditional
RE game, you probably are worried about their direction. With a first holiday season,
and a motion-controlled special edition coming up, this game will climb higher.
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43. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 - 4.60 million sold
(1.43M for X360, 1.15M for PS3, 1.02M for PSP, .91M for Wii, .09M for DS)
And 2 million more for PS2. This was the first version of WWE to come out
for Wii, PS3 and DS, and outsold the 2007 edition by over 3 million copies.
Too bad for THQ, those new audiences did not return for the 2009 edition,
which also sold 3 million less than this game.
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43. (tie) Rock Band - 4.60 million sold
(2.36M for X360, 1.33M for Wii, .88M for PS3)
The PS2 version sold another 700K. This game clearly lost the battle with Guitar Hero III,
but still changed music games forever by introducing the full band concept that Guitar Hero
has copied ever since. Rock Band 2 did not sell enough to make this list, and with the starts
that The Beatles and Guitar Hero 5 have gotten off to, maybe no more band games will.
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45. The Simpsons Game - 4.58 million sold
(1.38M for DS, .98M for 360, .92M for Wii, .71M for PS3, .59M for PSP)
1.2 million more for PS2. All told, this game sold similarly to Simpsons: Hit and Run
from 2003, which topped 4 million units on PS2 alone. The VGC database
also lists a 1.5 million selling Simpsons Wrestling for original PlayStation,
and of course we all remember 1991's classic co-op arcade brawler.
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46. Carnival Games - 4.55 million sold
(3.41M for Wii, 1.14M for DS)
The strongest argument for AND against third party Wii development.
"See? Third parties can have huge hits on Wii!" says one side.
"See? Only crap from third parties sells on Wii!" says the other.
Me? I don't care.
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47. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - 4.53 million sold
Zelda's biggest shake-up since Ocarina of Time. It failed to have the
explosive reception of that game, so it probably does not point to the
future of the series on Wii, but it did well enough to earn a DS sequel.
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48. Wii Sports Resort - 4.50 million sold
Yes. This list is already outdated. Wii Sports Resort will climb this list very quickly,
and could land in the top 20 by year's end. More importantly, it may become an enduring classic
moreso that Wii Sports, due to the superior controls and memorable WuHu Island setting.
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49. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time / Darkness - 4.46 million sold
The most successful of the dungeon crawler series where you play as the Pokemon.
We are well past the DS games that individually propelled hardware sales, but the DS software environment is so healthy, even the 13th best-selling DS game makes this list.
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50. Metal Gear Solid 4 - 4.22 million sold
I wonder if anyone read this list knowing MGS4's total sales number, and waiting to see
if just one PS3 exclusive could make the list. Well, it did, at least for now; Carnival Games
couldn't stop it. The simple fact about MGS4 is that for a certain breed of gamer,
this is 7th gen's best game, and already an all-time classic.
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To make this list, I looked for every game to top 4 million in the generation. To do that, I just had to look through every game to sell at least 800K on a single system, since 800K times 5 systems equals 4 million. Luckily that resulted in only 56 games to catalog, and here are the remaining 6 games:
