Feel free to explain why you see these games are popular, to those who don't understand why.  I hope I had put that in there.  The point of this thread was for people to explain their confusion as to why they don't get a certain game or franchise is popular and maybe others could explain it.  And maybe we don't totally dissolve into a flamefest, but get some insight.

Myself, I personally don't find music games appealing, but I kinda understand why others do get into them.  People want to pretend they are a rock star, and Guitar Heroes enables them to do that.  People playing air guitar should be a tip off that there is a game of interest in there somewhere.

I played FPS on PCs for years, and I understand why it works.  It fits the console controller and is accessible. They story is good enough also.  Flat out, Halo works, irregardless if you think it is garbage (or PoS).

We're not feigning ignorance. The question "Why on earth is that popular?" is a rhetorical question. Rhetorical questions are not asked to feign ignorance. Would you prefer if the thread title was "Which popular game do you dislike", like the hundreds of other threads about the same topic?

COD Series.

assassins creed, well at least the first one lol, there were people who loved the first one and thought it was the best eva!

I was hoping Assassins Creed wouldnt get dragged into this, but I suppose the first game kinda deserves it. I loved the game, didnt pay attention to its repetitiveness and Im still enjoying the sequel, but I do not claim its the best game ever (as that is impossible to decide, you can only ever do it based on your own opinion)

The first Assassin's Creed might as well just be called....Ass

Please don't skip ACII based on its boring, repetitive predecessor. It's a fantastic game.

I'll do as the OP asks

CoD is popular because it gets a ton of advertising, and it's really very well-made. FPS is a popular genre on consoles nowadays, thanks mostly to Halo (though, of course, part of the credit lies with Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark). So, with millions of dollars of advertising, Activision managed to make "Call of Duty" synonymous with "first-person shooter". The first sold almost purely on word of mouth because it was so fantastic, the second built on that and tried to reach out to an even wider audience.

I don't understand why Halo is so popular, it is definitely a great franchise, but people treat the story as if its sacred. I don't even need to mention the Multiplayer in the series.