One of the biggest staples of the gaming industry is if a title sells well it will get a sequel. But I thought it would be interesting to see what are the highest selling games not to get direct sequels. I also thought it would be interesting to look at what level of sales does it start to become more common for games not to recieve sequels.

So here are some of the best selling games to never recieve sequels. For now I'm not including games that released within the last 5 years or that have rumors of a sequel coming. This will be at least partly subjectivite what constitutes a sequel or followup, for example I'm not going to include World of WarCraft because of all the expansions released for the game (I'm not sure if there are rumors of a sequel). Also when Super Mario Galaxy 3 never releases that does not mean Super Mario Galaxy 2 would qualify, because whatever the next 3D Mario platformer is will be the followup.

Duck Hunt NES (28.31 mil) - Sales of the game mainly due to being a pack in, and had kind of a "spiritual successor" in the Wii Play shooting game. But this is by far the best selling game not to receive a direct sequel.

Diablo 2 PC/2000 (5.33 mil) - Don't know a lot about this franchise, but it has been 10 years with no Diablo 3. Is there suposed to be a follow up to this franchise?

Microsoft Flight Simulator PC/1996 (5.12 mil) - Another franchise I know nearly nothing about. But it has been 14 years since release, with no follow up. Unless was there a name change to the franchise?

Theme Hospital PC/1997 (3.99 mil) - This one is debatable since it is part of the Theme franchise, but other games in the series got direct sequels so I'm counting this one.

Pokemon Snap N64/1999(3.63 mil) - Might not be fair to count this Pokemon spinoff as it's own franchise, but other console spinoffs like Coliseum got similar follow ups.

Doom 3 PC&XB/2004(3.59 mil) - The most recent game on the list, but it has been over 5 years and I'm not aware of a 4th entry in the franchise.

Sim Theme Park PC/1999 (3.55 mil) - This one is kind of surprising to me, EA is known for making numerous sequels to its game, and this one was certainly deserving sales wise for a follow up. Maybe the release of The Sims the next year distracted them.

Luigi's Mansion GC/2001 (3.53 mil) - A Gamecube launch title that sold well but not one of Nintendo's biggest releases. That said it wouldn't be surprsing to see another game in the future for this franchise as Nintendo has been known to take long breaks in franchises before releasing them (Punch-Out!!, Donkey Kong Country, Kid Icarus all being examples).

Kung Fu NES/1985 (3.50 mil) - An NES title I had never heard of before making this list.

I'm going to stop here with the list, as I think it is becoming apparent that it becomes slightly more common for games not to recieve sequles in the 3.5-4 million range, although the vast majority of games in that range still do.

It took looking through the top 220 selling games to come up with a list of 9 titles not to receive sequels. Any game that sells more than 5.5 million is all but guaranteed to recieve a direct follow up as there is only  1 title to have sold more than that not to recieve a sequel.

I'm thinking that some of those facts may change after this generation, I think some of Nintendo's biggest hits this gen may go without what could be considered a direct follow up. I'm thining there may not be sequels to Brain Age 2, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and to a lesser extent something like Link's Crossbow training. It will be interesting to see how that all works out.

So what do you all think? DId I leave out some games making this list? Do you think there are some recent hit games that will not recieve a sequel?

Possible additions:

I suppose Baldurs gate II (2 million I think) could be on the list although Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age are spiritual successors.

Duke Nukem 3D is another possibility although there were other Duke games, none were FPS and it did have a number of expansions. Not sure on full sales numbers

Counterstrike could possibly be added to the list. Although there have been updated versions and an engine upgrade, they're essentially small updates to the same game (Counterstrike 4.2 million, Condition Zero 2.9 million, Source 2.1 million, not including Steam sales as of 2008, 1.5 million on X-box) .

Goldeneye? I know a remake has now been announced and Perfect Dark was a spiritual successor but it's another possibility (8 million sales I think).

There are some problems with your current list though:

Diablo 3 has been anounced, possibly next year.

Flight Simulator?! 1996?! There have been like 10 versions since! But, the last one came out in 2006 and Microsoft don't look to be making another. Not sure how well it sold.

A new Doom is apparently in development. Think it was revealed they were working on it at Quake-con a few yrs back?

was that ms flight sim x or something if so according to the re-release it went gold...

Yeah, I think so. So it sold well :P