9/1/2008 update

Right-o. Here we go again.

#97. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP) 4.99M
Still Sony's only current-gen presence in the top 100.

#90. Big Brain Academy (DS) 5.19M
Nintendo's other brain game may keep trucking towards 6M.

#86. Gears of War (360) 5.22M
There's been some suggestion this is overtracked, but reported shipments may not include bundles. It will be interesting to see if Gears 2 sells more or less.

#81. Mario and Sonic at the Olympics (Wii) 5.35M
Maybe the biggest surprise breakthrough mega-hit of the generation, Sega has said the game has shipped "around 10M" combined. It was boosted by the Olympics, and with no Mario Party 9 announced, it may be boosted again by the holidays.

#80. Mario Party 8 (Wii) 5.38M
Now sort of "the other Mario party game" compared to Mario and Sonic, but could still reap the benefits of Christmas to pass 6M sales.

#69. Grand Theft Auto IV (360) 5.86M
Riding a North American install base advantage to become the better-selling GTAIV SKU.

#66. Super Mario 64 DS (DS) 6.12M
The game that keeps on giving for Nintendo. SM64 may have sold 1M copies a year in 7-9 of the last 12 years.

#61. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) 6.36M
Even Activision probably isn't certain how they turned COD4 into the most popular shooter of all time.

#55. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) 6.73M
Closing in on Melee at #49/7.08M.

#53. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) 6.86M
Hasn't had the tall legs that people expected, but still should have long legs.

#51. Wii Fit (Wii) 6.96M
7M sales is likely just the start for this game.

#47. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) 7.35M
Absolutely unholy ongoing sales. Destined to be one of the best-selling games ever. Could reach 11 or 12M by the end of Nintendo's fiscal year in March.

#38. Halo 3 (360) 8.17M
Appropriately, wedged in between Halo 2 and GoldenEye 007.

#32. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS) 9.69M
Crawling towards the big 10M mark; likely the last DS game to reach.

#24. Mario Kart DS (DS) 11.68M
Has blown past Mario Kart 64 to be the best-selling MK game, and will soon pass SM64 to be the #6 best-selling Mario game ever (including pack-ins)... Until MK Wii passes it.

#21. Brain Age 2 (DS) 11.91M

#20. Brain Age (DS) 13.95M
The original game is actually selling better right now, but both could pass 15M. Between the two games, Brain Age is basically the biggest unqualified success for any new franchise in history, save perhaps Pokemon.

#18. Wii Play (Wii) 14.40M
The world's only bargin bin killer app.

#14. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) 15.46M
On a collision course with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) to become the best-selling (non-pack-in, single SKU) game ever... But it better watch out for Wii Play and Wii Fit.

#13. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (DS) 15.71M
I don't entirely trust the number for Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, but even if it's low, this game should still pass it, reversing the trend of Pokemon games selling less.

#8. Nintendogs (DS) 19.45M
Now passing the old Nintendo pack-ins, a level of sales only Pokemon RGB and GS ever reached before.

#5. Wii Sports (Wii) 28.00M
May pass Duck Hunt as soon as next week.

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Original Post:

The game database has sales or shipment numbers for games dating back to the NES, broken up by platform, and ignores how games were marketed. Though the list is incomplete, missing PC games in particular, it is still interesting to see how games rank from a historical perspective. Here's the current gen games on the list...

# 97: Super Mario Galaxy   4.69M
This game has been undertracked. It is likely already above 5M.
Upcoming landmark: #62 Super Mario Sunshine at 5.91M should be passed in a matter of months.

#94: World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade   4.81M
The first expansion to the most popular online game of all-time.
Upcoming landmark: #80 The Sims 2, at 5.21M

#92: Gears of War   4.87M
The XBox's biggest breakthrough exclusive since Halo.
Upcoming landmark: The original Resident Evil (#85, 5.05M), Kirby's Dreamland (#83, 5.13M) and Kingdom Hearts (#70, 5.50M) are all within sight if GoW gets a boost with the release of it's sequel. Pretty good company for an IP debut.

# 68 Super Mario 64 DS   5.56M
Has sold 46% of what the original N64 game sold.
Upcoming landmark: #62 Super Mario Sunshine at 5.91M could be within range. A remake beating a wholly original game doesn't speak highly of the GC's or Sunshine's performance.

#51 Halo 3   6.56M
Original Halo? #54 at 6.43M.
Upcoming landmark: #37 Halo 2 at 8.45M. Halo 3 has already shipped over 8M, so this will come sooner than it appears.

#36 Animal Crossing: Wild World   8.69M
There's no good game to compare this to; it has been a massive breakthrough for this type of game on a handheld.
Upcoming landmark: 10M in sales.

#33 Wii Play   8.88M
Benefitting from what amounts to a $10 price tag. Sold over 1M units in it's 11th month of release, Dec 2007, in the US alone.
Upcoming landmark: #4 Duck Hunt at 28.31M. A similarly ultra-shallow game benefitting from an unorthodox pack-in deal and dirt cheap price.

#31 World of Warcraft   9.19M
The biggest online game of all time.
Upcoming landmark: #27 Final Fantasy VII at 9.72M is the best-selling non-Pokemon RPG ever. A Western MMORPG earning that distinction would be pretty significant.

#30 More Brain Training   9.23M
& #23 Brain Training   11.07M
Arguably the biggest breakthrough franchise of the generation; certainly the biggest not packed-in with Wii.
Upcoming landmark: #15 Pokemon Yellow at 14.64M. This game is the highest-selling single-SKU, non-packed-in handheld game ever. It may or may not be in sight, depending if BT's legs can continue for another full year or more.

#18 New Super Mario Bros.   12.79M
Upcoming landmark: #9 Super Mario Bros 3 at 17.28M. Actually the #1 game excluding multi-SKU or pack-in releases. Would be appropriate if the next game to carry the Mario Bros. moniker, 15 years later, were the first to pass it.

#17 Pokemon Diamond/Pearl   13.34M
Upcoming landmark: #13 Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire at 15.20M. Would be the first Pokemon edition to outsell the previous edition.

#10 Nintendogs   16.74M
Upcoming landmark: #6 Super Mario World at 20.61M. A non-pack-in passing a long-term pack-in for a console war winning system? Holy crap.

#8 Wii Sports   17.75M
Upcoming landmark: #1 Super Mario Bros at 40.24M. Can Wii Sports do what Pokemon and Tetris couldn't, and topple the all-time king? Depends on how long it remains a pack-in.

On the verge:

#101 Grand Theft Auto: Libery City Stories 4.64M
#103 Big Brain Academy 4.59M
#108 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 4.39M
#116 Mario Party 8 4.17M
#119 Half Life 2 4.13M

Very Good comparison. I don't think Animal Crossing: Wild World, Gears of War or Super Mario 64 DS will sell many more copies. Super Mario Galaxy should push a lot more copies since the games only benn out for 3 months (roughly) Nintendogs should break 20 million. I wonder if any more games from the current generation could break the top 10. My best bets would be Pokemon Diamond/Pearl and New Super Mario Bros.



Out of the ones that are on the verge, Zelda should be able to break the top 100 since the won't be any more console Zeldas for awhile. Mario Party will probably be replaced by Mario Party 9 and the rest aren' likely to sell many more copies.

looks like we'll have to wait till GT5 or FFXIII for a ps3 game to go on the list

I'm pretty sure Wii sports will go to #1.

I'm pretty sure World of Warcraft has sold over 10million. Last numbers we got from Blizzard was the 9.3 million active accounts back a couple of months ago. So definitely WoW has over 10 million copies sold.

 You can compare this to a lesser selling game like Monster Hunter Portable (and 2). Although MHP isn't going to pass AC:WW they have very similar aspects of gameplay. Also similar to Harvest Moon and The Sims. Nice list and commentary.

Terrific Thread.

 Galaxy - Passing Sunshine is a guarantee. But it'll also go on to pass the Gamecube's highest selling title Mario Kart Double Dash at 6.6 million. The combo of better game plus huge selling system will catapult Mario into the kind of sales we'd forgotten he could do.

 Animal Crossing: Wild World - I have to disagree with Nintendo Dude on this one. The game just sold thirty thousand this very slow week in it's 112'th week. This game is going to keep selling at a steady rate for some time.

Wii Sports - we all agree that this one depends on how long it's a pack in. But we need to remember that even if it lost that status tomorrow, it would still see many more millions in sales. (the same could NOT be said for Wii Play)

Gears of War - Has this game had it's player's choice release yet? Because expect a healthy bump when that happens. 

That subscription number includes bulk subscriptions in Asian countries which don't follow the boxed retail game model quite like Japan, America and Europe do.

Nonetheless, it is an ACTIVE accounts numbers (Blizzard has been very specific I believe), and given how old the game is, there are probably hundreds of thousands of no-longer active accounts.

But I just used the numbers on the site. I wasn't going to bother looking up the 8M+ shipment number for Halo, or adding the 300K undertracking of Mario Galaxy compared to NPD December.

I think, btw, that Big Brain Academy will probably break into the top 100. It has held up exceptionally well over time.

Until recently, I would have agreed that SM64DS was dead in the water too, but it jumped up significantly over the holidays.

GTA:LCS will be able to break in at least temporarily. There's a whole group of games within 100K of it.

And Twilight Princess will probably have enough legs for a temporary top 100 spot as well.

Mario Party 8 depends on when Mario Party 9 comes out.

More...

Stof, I agree about Gears... It will sell loads at $20, which I don't think it has dropped to yet.

#157 Forza Motorsport 2 at 3.47M. Depends on how long the pack-in lasts.

#182 Call of Duty 4 (X360) at 3.21M. HUGELY undertracked for Dec NPD. Should sell 5M.

Wii Sports will outsell Super Mario Bros, Nintendo would be stupid not to keep it as a bundle.