With the June data having been released recently, NPD has now revealed the top selling games through the first half of this year. Rockstar's blockbuster Western title Red Dead Redemption is the #1 game when looking at combined platform sales.
Interestingly, on an individual SKU basis, the Xbox 360 version is #3 on the chart, while the PS3 version of the title didn't make the top 10. And, on an individual basis, New Super Mario Bros. Wii beats out both Red Dead and Pokemon for the top slot. It's also curious that BioWare's Mass Effect 2 didn't make the top 10 chart.
Looking at the top 10 chart, it's evident that Nintendo games still dominate. The Wii occupied five out of the top 10 slots and just one of those was not a first-party title: Just Dance. NPD did not provide unit figures, but the two charts are provided below.
Top Ten Individual Platform Sales (Jan-Jun)
1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Wii
2. Pokemon SoulSilver Version - Nintendo DS
3. Red Dead Redemption - Xbox 360
4. God of War III - PlayStation 3
5. Wii Fit Plus w/Balance Board - Wii
6. Wii Sports Resort w/ Wii Motion Plus - Wii
7. Pokemon HeartGold Version - Nintendo DS
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Xbox 360
9. Just Dance - Wii
10. Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Wii
Top Five Combined Platform Sales (Jan-Jun)
1. Red Dead Redemption (360,PS3)
2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2* (360,PS3)
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360,PS3)
5. Wii Fit Plus* (Wii)
* = Sales across all platforms and bundles, CE, GOTY editions etc.
[Thanks IGN]
1 Comments
July 22, 2010
Fascinating. In the single platform chart, Nintendo platforms held seven out of ten spots, but only one of those was a third party title, and an extremely casual one at that. Both good and bad news for Nintendo, depending on how you look at it. If only games like Red Steel 2 and Muramasa: The Demon Blade could achieve even half the sales of these titles, third party development on the Wii would be in a much stronger state. The root of this problem, IMO, is that everyone assumed the Wii was neat but would be a commercial failure in the long run due to its comparably weak hardware and was not worth investing serious resources in. By the time publishers realized how mistaken that conventional wisdom was (sometime in 2007 for most) their top tier dev talent was already committed to large and expensive AAA projects for the HD Twins. They certainly weren't going to cancel those titles since so much money had already been invested in them, and they could only justify the expenditure of resources by reusing engines and assets for subsequent sequels throughout this gen to recoup some of their losses. So that left the C and D teams to make Wii software, and worse.
Few noteworthy 3rd party titles released for Wii until 2008, and by then it was too late. A flood of shovelware paled in comparison to Nintendo's A team efforts, even in their casual titles. Thus the largest sales numbers were reserved for these top tier Nintendo titles, both because of brand recognition but also apparent quality differential. In the Wii's defense though, there have been a LOT of million selling third party titles, but surpassing one million is not even close to Mario Kart Wii's twenty some million units. Thankfully the 3DS will not share the same fate, since everyone assumes from the outset it will be the market leader, not to mention all the buzz it's generated since E3. I would like to see Nintendo find some way to leverage the 3DS's success to help Wii development. The best way I can imagine is to bring back the underdeveloped concept of Connectivity, with titles similar to the original Crystal Chronicles and Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. Both were a blast if you had the necessary equipment. Hope you enjoyed my rant, seems to happen every time I post. :)