well obviously each successive gen of gaming will be bigger than the last because the worlds population is growing = more gamers

I perceive that the gaming market is still growing and will continue to grow because more people are getting into gaming. With newer and newer technology people will jump in and since compared to the world there aren't that many gamers let alone hardcore gamers we will see growth until really everyone is playing games.

That's what I was thinking even though it is 8 of the 10 it's not 1-8 of the top 10.  Since 4 and 5 are last gen that means only 3 games have beaten them so far so that as you said it would take 7 more 4 million lanches. So I'm pretty confident that this gen will remain with 8 of the top 10 although it will probably push 4 and 5 down a bit futher.

Listing the top selling games of the generation is a bit tricky, though. You have to consider mutliplatforms and add up numbers and such. It's easy to miss games, and all of that. The thread is also likely to dissolve into Wii vs HD discussions quite quickly.

A major flaw in this thread is also that VGChartz data on first week sales is really limited to the 6th and 7th generation only. I'm fairly certain that Pokemon Gold/Silver both had quite a huge launch. It did 1.5 million in Japan alone, so 3 million at least isn't a far-fetched guess.

All this thread really proves is that this generation has bigger blockbusters than the 6th generation.

 And since you wanted a list of the best selling games of this generation, here you go. (Again, might have missed a game or two). I'm limiting it to 15 million to avoid a huge list.

 1. Wii Sports - 67 million
 2. Wii Play - 28 million
3. Nintendogs - 24 million
4. Mario Kart Wii - 23.5 million
5. New Super Mario Bros. DS - 23.1 million
6. Wii Fit - 22.6 million 
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - 20.6 million
8. Wii Sports Resort - 19.7 million
9. Brain Age - 19.3 million
10. Mario Kart DS - 18.7 million
11. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - 17.6 million
12. New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 16.6 million
13. Brain Age 2 - 15 million
14. Grand Theft Auto IV - 15 million

 World of Warcraft definitely belongs somewhere on that list too, I'd guess around 20 million.

To compare that to previous generations, 13 single-platform games have reached 15 million in previous generations. The only mutli-plat one I see reaching those numbers is Vice City.

So pretty much half of the top-sellers are from this generation. But that doesn't necessarily mean that this generation is the biggest ever for software.

It definitely is, though. At least if you count the handhelds.

If we can trust The Source (http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/80025/state-of-the-generation-big-3-shipment-update-through-march-2010/), the Ps2 has shipped around 1.5 billion copies of software.  I don't know what the Xbox or Gamecube was at, but let's say they averaged 15 games per console (50% more than the Ps2). That puts it up to 660 million more. 6th gen's consoles sold somewhere between 2 and 2.25 billion copies of software.

The 7th gen consoles had by March 2010 shipped around 1.1 billion. As software sales are generally roughly a mirror parabola, with the peak being a year after the hardware peak, I think it's safe to assume that this generation will sell more than last generation by quite a large margin. 2.5 billion to 3 billion seems likely, but I'm kind of guessing there.

Add in the DS and PsP, and the difference is huge.  The Source said (http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/82596/big-three-shipment-update-through-september-2010/) that the GBA shipped around 400 million units of software, and the DS has already doubled that. The PsP also shipped around 260 million, so you're looking at a tripling of software sales at the very least. A quadrupling seems likely.

The software sales of the consoles is "only" up by 25%, or something like that. The software sales of the handhelds is up by 300% or something like that. The proof in the OP may say "This generation is bigger than ever" because of the big launches, and be correct, but it's not really correct because of the proof it contains. That proof just coincidentally happened to fit in with the truth.

With the next generation beginning early next year with the 3DS, and new consoles in 1.5-2 years, I don't see how that is possible. At best, PS3 will reach 70 million and Xbox 360 will each 65 million. The Wii is the only other system, besides DS, that has a reasonable shot at passing 100 million.

It's a weak argument to state that most of the sales this generation have yet to come.

I agree, at least on the home console side of things; the peak generation, in my opinion, was the PSX/N64 generation. On the handheld front, I feel this generation has been far stronger than the rest.

The main problem, with home console games this generation, has been that games have been taking place in increasingly large and emptier environments; and an ever increasing focus on games about essentially "a man with a gun".

Every gen will be bigger than the previous... till the next crash. It's as simple as that :D

only time will tell, and you maybe right but why end this gen so early? you must not beleave in move and Kinect like Sony and MS do am i right? no im not saying they are or will be the reason for this gen extending to 10 yrs, but its not a bad argument that i personaly wouldn't make!

1.5 -2 yrs? well lets see! 2011, 12,13,14 hmmm! i see 3 not counting 2011.

and as for the last statement ur wrong and right!? if you think that the total sells that have and are being predicted with the addition of current sells makes up the total number of gamers then you have little faith in this industry!

its not over by a long shot! the cost of dev. hasn't even gone down yet and looks to stay high for the next 2 to 4 yr's? gamers are the only ones rushing this gen to end, so ask your self why the big 3 nor independent dev's and big pub's are even touching the subject of next gen besides the obvious reason?

and the worst argument you could make is PS2 got lucky

Well you won't get the top 10 debuts this gen (GTA:SA is pretty high up that list, and I can't see too many more games toping that this gen).

However I've put thought into this too.

Yes I do this every future gen will outsell the prior because the video game market is expanding. In the NES era Games were behind music and movies as a form of electronic entertainment, now they are #1 (in terms of profits).

Hardware sales have also gone up every generation, and I would assume software sales follow.

8-bit (NES) = 62 million

16-bit (Gen, SNES) = 77.6 million

32/64-bit (Saturn, PS1, N64) = 144.2 million

128-bit (Dreamcast, PS2, GCN, X-Box) = 193 million ans still growing slowly

128/256-bit (360, PS3, Wii) = 162.41 million, and still growing quickly. Will surpass prior gen.

Handhelds also follow this trend, but there is a dip in GBA sales because GBA was only the primary handheld for a little over 3 years, where GB was on sale for 12. This handheld gen is by far the best selling too.

When will this expansion stop? I don't know. Gaming is something people generally get into young, and it's been growing because kids grow up and new kids add to the gaming base. This could grow for a long long time, but I feel it will grow until the destinction between movies and games becomes a fine line (so when more games like Heavy Rain come out, 20 years?). After that it will probably plateau.

As the economy gets worst every year we say "eff this money problem and lets buy more games to fix it!!!" xD