Some Game Series with Big Declines in Recent Years

[Salnax]

I went through the Game Database a few days back and observed that a few series have REALLY declined in recent years. All of the following series have lost over half of their predecessors' sales with recent iterations.

Note that the data here is slightly aged, meaning that those games with 56% drops may only be 55% drops and such.

 

Series	High Point	High Sales	Low Point	Low Sales	% Drop
Wii Fit	Original	22.69	Wii Fit U	0.22	99.03040987
Wii Play	Original	28.79	Motion	0.87	96.9781174
Mario & Sonic	Beijing	7.92	Sochi	0.31	96.08585859
Kung Fu Panda	Original	6.3	Kung Fu Panda 2	0.6	90.47619048
Cooking Mama	Cooking Mama	5.52	Cooking Mama 4	0.54	90.2173913
Nintendogs	Nintendogs	24.58	Nintendogs + cats	3.31	86.53376729
Guitar Hero	III	16.17	Warriors of Rock	2.44	84.91032777
Super Monkey Ball	Banana Blitz	2.2	Step & Roll	0.37	83.18181818
Pro Evolution Soccer	Soccer 2007	6.53	Soccer 2014	1.16	82.23583461
Gears of War	Gears of War 2	6.67	Judgement	1.4	79.01049475
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon	Explorers Duo	4.9	Gates to Infinity	1.06	78.36734694
Professor Layton	Curious Village	5.12	Mask of Miracle	1.36	73.4375
Dead Island	Original	4.46	Riptide	1.19	73.31838565
2D Handheld Sonic	Rush	3.08	Generations	0.84	72.72727273
Rock Band	Original	7.16	Rock Band 3	1.98	72.34636872
God of War (Handheld)	Chains of Olympus	3.13	Ghost of Sparta	0.91	70.92651757
Metroidvania	Dawn of Sorrow	0.39	Mirror of Fate	0.12	69.23076923
Resistance	Original	4.23	Three	1.36	67.84869976
Batman: Arkham	City	9.82	Origins	3.24	67.00610998
Mario Party	Mario Party 8	8.05	Mario Party 9	2.76	65.71428571
Devil May Cry	Devil May Cry 4	2.83	DmC	1.02	63.95759717
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed	Original	9.6	II	3.48	63.75
Just Dance	III	12.35	2014	4.54	63.2388664
Dissidia	Original	2.19	Duodecim	0.82	62.55707763
LEGO Batman	Original	12.55	2: DC Super Heroes	4.83	61.51394422
Tony Hawk	Project 8	2.48	Shred	0.97	60.88709677
Soul Calibur	IV	2.93	V	1.17	60.06825939
Medal of Honor	2010 Iteration	5.25	Warfighter	2.14	59.23809524
LEGO Indiana Jones	Original Adventures	11.58	The Adventure Continues	4.8	58.5492228
Cars	Original	6.71	Cars 2	2.89	56.92995529
Zelda (Console)	Twilight Princess	8.52	Skyward Sword	3.73	56.22065728
Madden NFL	NFL 07	9.98	NFL 25	4.39	56.01202405

 

Some things I've noticed:

• Nintendo has really been the victim of exclusive or predominatnly Nintendo series declining in recent years. We have Wii Fit, Nintendogs, Wii Play, and Cooking Mama all near the top. Further down, there's also console Zelda games, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Professor Layton, Handheld Sonic games, Metroidvania titles (if you include Mirror of Fate as one), Mario Party, and Just Dance.
• Another big loser is licensed games in general. Multiple LEGO series were one-hit wonders, Kung Fu Panda was a surprisingly big hit back in 2008 that never carried any momentum, The Force Unleashed 2 did poorly, and even sports games like Tony Hawk, Pro Evolution Soccer, and Madden have fallen a lot, despite the rise of games like FIFA.
• Gears of War's Judgement game did a fraction of the sales of any of its predecessors.
• Music games, despite only being a recent hit, have all done poorly more recently, with Guitar Hero and Rock Band dead and Just Dance plummeting.
• I didn't count Brain Age because I think VGChartz isn't really tracking it in all regions. Consider it an honorable mention.

 

Any additions you'd like me to add or observations to make?