December 2008 NPD: Top 20 Software Rankings

Top 20 Games of December 2008:
01. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo) - 1460k
02. [360] Call of Duty: World at War* (Activision Blizzard) - 1330k
03. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 999k
04. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 878k
05. [WII] Guitar Hero World Tour* (Activision Blizzard) - 859k
06. [360] Gears of War 2* (Microsoft) - 745k
07. [360] Left 4 Dead (Electronic Arts) - 629k
08. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo) - 540k
09. [PS3] Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard) - 533k
10. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk* (Nintendo) - 497k
11. [WII] Wii Music (Nintendo) - ~480k
12. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
13. [NDS] Personal Trainer: Cooking (Nintendo)
14. [360] Fallout 3* (Bethesda Softworks)
15. [NDS] Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force (Disney Interactive Studios)
16. [WII] Link's Crossbow Training (Nintendo)
17. [PS2] Guitar Hero World Tour* (Activision Blizzard)
18. [360] Madden NFL 09* (Electronic Arts)
19. [WII] Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard)
20. [WII] Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Ubisoft)

[original seed]

Wow, lets buy some games everybody. I only bought LBP but still, what about the die hard fans?

[BulletToothtony]

LBP
Resistance2
Fallout3
Socom Confrontation
Crash Commando

and i did rent WAW i hated it..

now i have to wait till Killzone2, I might pick up LOtR Conquest thou.. I'm a big lotr fan

[WANNA GET HIGH]

Wow, so what happend to LBP going to have legs in christmas.... :/
only 1ps3 title.Looks like 2008 was not the year of the ps3 after all.And i bought resistance 2 but i did not finish it, i tought gears2 was better in both graphics and gameplay...

Psn id is jon_abobo. Add me, i want to make a clan for killzone 2.. :)

Dont think that ps3 owners are not critical of the ps3, i own one but i say the facts when i see something wrong.I did not like resistance2 and lbp,it was only motorstorm2 that i liked.Socom sucked a$$...But killzone 2 will own, i dont care what killzone2 sells as long as i have it.. ;-D

[DNAgent]

This is the TOP 20 list so it will only be filled with stuff that appeals more to the casual gamers like such as shovelware, sports, & shooters. The actual GOOD games are under all the garbage.

[sinny]

Good games =/= sales

In fact the only Great games in that list are Left4Dead and Mario Kart DS

And i don't want to hear any xbot saying nothing, because that would mean only that they accept that the WII is the best console ever and that WII play is the best game ever created , and clearly are not.

[Dmitry Orlov]

@DNAgent
So, you're saying that GEoW2, L4D, GH:WT, Fallout 3 and CoD:WaW are all trash? I pity you.
@sinny
You have some kinda twisted logic. All the games I mentioned above deserve attention and to played and loved. Disagree? Than get a life, droid.

[Sonyslave3]

no ps3 exclusive ahahahahhahahhahahhaha on the top 20 hey somebody get me the top 50 software ranking ahahahahahah

remember357- no it don't make feel good i don't even care about the sales it just sonyslaves who are feeling pretty sad right now that what funny.

[RememberThe357]

The sad thing is that makes you feel good. You need to work on getting your life together man. If thats what makes you laugh I feel sorry for you.

[truewittness]

i'm the most unbias person you'll ever come across, but.."Good games =/= sales", that's the biggest oxymoron i've ever heard.

[sinny]

Then you are saying that Good games = Sales
how can be stupid to think that just because a game sells well doesn't mean that is good?
if that were true then in your opinion WII has the best games this gen?
Im not trying to pick a fight or something , i just want to know why you think that sales represent how good a game is

[TheCagyDies]

Sales are facts.
If a game is good or bad is a personal opinion.
One may argue that all the Xbox 360 games are amazing and the PS3 games are crap.
One may argue that all the PS3 games are amazing and the Xbox 360 games are crap.
Who's right or who's wrong, we will never know.

[jcgamer]

*FLUTE*

near, far
WHEREVER you are
i believe that Sony will go on...

lol :)

NICE software sales for the 360 and Wii.. :)

[kewlkat007]

Still, WTF did MGS4 stop selling?

Where is LBP on the List?

Resistance 2?

I mean December is the busiest shopping month for the Industry, come on people, what you waiting for ,Spring? When everyone is broke and the industry is slow..I hope some are not waiting for Game Price-cuts as much as the console itself.

The Wii, Well Nintendo have done it again...not sure when it will slow down but I stopped paying attention.

Look, MS selling software,L4D(came out of nowhere) nothing new here. This is what Developers want to see.

We all know what happened to the Dreamcast and why...I love software numbers. That's what keeps my Hobby alive. Of course, The more hardware you sell, the more you ATTRACT DEVELOPERS. Easy as Pie.

[jessupj]

To the people that look at this and say 'well I guess it wasn't the year of the ps3 after all', here's something to think about. According to your logic wii play and wii fit are a few of the greatest games ever made, but of course that right there is enough to make any educated gamer with a decent taste is games laugh out loud.

I don't really believe in any of this "year of the *insert your console of choice*". But I do believe, I, as a ps3 owner have had a very good year, a better one than a 360 fan. I've enjoyed amazing games like MGS4 and LBP and plan to purchase a lot of others when I get the money. I won't bore you with another list of games.

I don't believe 360 fans got the same ammount of quality exclusives. Fable 2, Gears2 and Left for Dead are the only ones I'd buy if I had a 360.

Ps3 fans had a huge choice, so of course individual softwear sales are going to be low because there are spread over several titles, specially in november and December when we had a tidal wave of releases. However, the 360 had fewer AAA exclusives so individual softwear listing are going to be high because the sales are only spread on a few games.

Not the mention the uneducated parents. What do you the think the assistant is going to tell them when they ask 'what game do you reccomend getting little johnny on the 360 this christmas?'.

It all doesn't matter becuase sales don't have anything to do with quality. The wii has proved this so many times. Anyone pointing to sales and claiming they have better games because of that is just a fool and instantly lose all credibility in my eyes.

[prowiew]

Top 10 isn't enough. I want top 20 from now on!

[Thugbot187]

@jessupj - I guess where would I begin with a comment like "I don't believe 360 fans got the same amount of quality exclusive. Fable 2, Gears2 and Left for Dead are the only ones I'd buy if I had a 360. "

This year my top five exclusive in order

1.) Saints Row 2 - Way better than GTA
2.) Gears of War 2 - You feel like your in the game
3.) Left 4 Dead - Hours of fun
4.) Fable 2 - Never knew you could get an STD in a game
5.) Lost Odyssey - got my JRPG fix

On top of this like many PS3 Users we got great cross platform titles that were AAA.

It seems to me your are too busy hating Microsoft to realize that they actually have had a great library, and maybe they sold well because people liked what they had to offer.

No I don't own a PS3, is it because I hate Sony or think the PS3 sucks or I'm too broke to own a PS3? Absolutely not I like the PS3 just I have too many games for my 360, PC, DS and PS2 to play still. I have over 30 360 games, and more than 15 PC titles 5 DS games and a few PS2 titles. Just way too many games for me to keep up with. When the 360 stops having titles to keep me busy or the PS3 drops to a price I want to see I will buy a PS3 (and I'm sure I will get all the games I missed out on for 1/3 or less of the price).

[y0haN]

Why do you guys care what games sell the most? Buy the games you like and play them jesus fuсking christ.

[Captain Tuttle]

nm

[WANNA GET HIGH]

Wrong, i have both consoles and i think gears2 owned every game last year apart from mgs4.

[RememberThe357]

It wasn't even as good a Gears 1(one of my favorite 360 games). But thats just my opinion. I'm sure Epic would be glad to here that your having a good time with it.

[jessupj]

Look at it this way....

Lets say there's 25 people that are going to buy one 360 game in December. Lets also say there's another 20 people that are going to buy one ps3 game in the same month.

Now lets say the ps3 people have 10 games to choose from, but the 360 people only have five games to choose from. What's going to happen?

Those five 360 games are going to sell 5 copies each.
But the ten ps3 games are only going to sell about 2 each.

And then lets make a top 5 games list and put the top selling games in the list. Wow, would you look at that! All five 360 games are in the list but not a single ps3 made it. Acording to fanboy logic the ps3 sucks and no one buys games and the 360 rules.

Of course this is a very abstract example, but this is pretty much what is happening.

[wicked]

@2.3

But the 360 had the same if not more choice than the PS3, so you expect the PS3 to be on the list?

[bomboclaat_gamer]

vaginastically good

[sak500]

LOL if sony lover on n4g goes and buys a ps3 game instead of spending whole day and night here bashing 360 news, we would see more ps3 games in the charts. Or maybe there are just few of these guys with each 10 accounts.

Anyway, sad to see devs not getting their fair share on ps3.

[Sonyslave3]

i love how they list a hole bunch of games and they know they not even going to buy them

[Sonyslave3]

so basically it was just wii and 360 owners buying games in 08

[cherrypie]

2007 | 2008
Wii - 1.35m | 2.15m
Xbox 360 - 1.26m | 1.44m
PS3 - 797k | 726k

OUCH! I can *HEAR* the 3rd party support running away. Where are the game sales? Only 1 in the Top 20 FFS!

All PS3 exclusive 3rd party titles are gone.

[Captain Tuttle]

1 game in the top 20 in North America is really not good news for Sony. LBP, MGS 4 and R2 all failed to crack it.

Edit: Very good point 360 man...bubble

[360 man]

well in all fairness mgs 4 was released quite a few months ago but resistance 2 and LBP there is no excuse

[00]

one game is also on the 360 and wii.

[heroicjanitor]

But I think the buying habits are the same as the ps2 was. A lot of games only sold a million but since there was a huge install base it was masked. Anyway 360 fans clearly buy a lot more multi platform games/shooters, and my personal opinion is that this is because they are currently paying for online, and want to get the most out of it. It is a clever strategy by microsoft, it's not just the subscription they're getting, it makes people buy online too, as subconsciously it breaks the barrier and makes people want to buy more online. I know I was hesitant at first to buy online games, but once you get one you get a lot more. With the 360 there is no need to get that first game, since you have already bought a subscription. It creates a culture of game buying, whereas the ps3 leaving it up to you kind of makes people wait.

[InMyOpinion]

Top 10 PlayStation 3 Games
01. PS3 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD - 533k
02. PS3 MORTAL KOMBAT VS. DC UNIVERSE* MIDWAY
03. PS3 LITTLE BIG PLANET SONY
04. PS3 PRINCE OF PERSIA* UBISOFT
05. PS3 GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
06. PS3 RESISTANCE 2* SONY
07. PS3 MADDEN NFL 09* ELECTRONIC ARTS
08. PS3 FALLOUT 3* BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
09. PS3 ROCK BAND 2* MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS
10. PS3 NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERCOVER ELECTRONIC ARTS

Motorstorm 2 didn't even make the top 10 list. Very surprising. Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is ahead of LBP. That's hilarious considering how PS3 fanboys love to tout that PS3 owners are supposed to be the most 'sophisticated gamers'.

[Captain Tuttle]

I never thought of it that way but I think you're right. Being into Live as much as $50/year almost puts pressure on you to use it.

[ArmrdChaos]

Hero..those are good points, but the one other thing to keep in mind is how easy Live has made it for meeting up with people. They have made multiplay more accessible for most even if you don't have an extensive group of gaming friends. You jump on Live and make NEW friends for the games you like play. Sure there are a lot of people you don't want to deal with on Live...but you have the ability to weed out the good from the bad. That is what social gaming is all about.

[RememberThe357]

...that most PS3/360 owners aren't fanboys?

Most people who own a PS3 aren't on this site.

So obviously the 20 Sony fanboys who we all hear from constantly don't represent the 19 MILLION PS3 owners...

[360 man]

i think you mean 20 million ps3 owners

[InMyOpinion]

I speak for 92% of the worlds 360 owners. I am the Gravemind. Just thought I'd let you know.

[GarandShooter]

I'm one of the 8%.
:)

[ArmrdChaos]

Game is a riot to play with friends. Hopefully increased sales numbers will get Valve moving on more DLC for the game. Still waiting to hear when the first proposed DLC content is going to drop.

[games4fun]

L4D in my opinion is a piece of crap. I played it, a beginning cgi movie to draw away from the fact that the source engine is one of the most outdated engines around with crappy animations, the only good points are the ammount of doors that can be opened giving a sense that it is not linear(it is though) and the spawn points of the zombies being different on each play through is a nice touch.

The controls are horrible you cant even zoom in with your weapons or look down the ironsites only the hunting rifle zooms and the characters float around. And saying the controls are good is like saying the controls for "insert mediocore fps" are good too.

ONLY valve would get away with releasing an unfinished add-0n game and sell it for 60. If anyone else were to release a game running on an old engine with mediocore controls and a few gimmicks would have failed.

Of course valve made sure it was zombies to justify the game which would really take no skill to make because zombies are allowed to be stupid which is obviously why they picked zombies. And is demonstrated throughout many of their games whenever a bunch of zombie characters come at you and people talk about the engine able to make so many enemies when in reality they are mediocore and valve is half-a##ing its games again.

[WANNA GET HIGH]

Hate it or love it the wii is winning this gen followed by the 360 and the ps3....Ps3 fan boys should just accpet it, every winner must lose some day.Sony won the last two gen but if this keep going like this i dont think they can make it 3in a row.Say what u want about the 360 having a head start,price...or what ever excuse u can think of,the fact is they got it spot on this time around and tought of games first not having the next gen dvd player in there console.

psn id jon_abobo :)

[ArmrdChaos]

Well...everyone has their own likes and dislikes so I am not going to debate absolutes. I never said that the game is a technological achievement...all I said was that I enjoyed playing it with a group of friends. Which also proves that games don't have to be photo-realistic or in development 4+ years to be fun. Anyone wanting to knock the game should first play it with a group of friends on Normal or Advanced...or try the vs mode and play as undead. If you don't like it after that, then the game is not for you...no crime in that.

[games4fun]

thank for your reply i agree that there is fun to be had i guess i was just really angry when i played it and realized how valve has been doing the bare minimum in terms of their engine the game can obviously be fun to play at times.

I feel like an apple supporter getting assaulted with sales numbers the whole while only caring about the quality i received.

i dont need a refresher on the wii numbers i dont like the wii and dont plan on buying it and yea i know nintendo probably doesnt really care.

My only hope is that the wii2 launches and fails utterly proving that casuals arent consistent with their purchases much like the stereotype of them has been for any product they buy.

[ArmrdChaos]

NP Games...I can see where you are coming from...with what they charge for games these days, people do expect more. As long as I get the hours out of it that I should then I am usually satisfied. I just want people to try what I mentioned before writing off the game...they may be surprised. Especially with vs mode with friends. If not...then at least they tried...rent or download demo before buying if unsure.

[games4fun]

the month of december, ignore all of the year except the current month, that way it looks like a recent surge and a price cut are made out to be a years worth of ownage even though they are equal in sales for the year pretty much. golf clap to ADD riddled children on N4G

Although it still is bad because December is an important month.

[LoydX-mas]

The only data I could find for software totals in 2008 is this:

http://www.gamespot.com/new...

**only 1 PS3 game in the top ten for the year....and again it is a multi-platform.

Now, to be fair, the 360 only had one exclusive while the other three were multi-platform.

[Hellsvacancy]

Wot the hells that?

[games4fun]

that proves that the days of good well polished games are coming to a close.

Anyone who justifies a wii as a good console is just lying to themselves so they dont have to buy another console / when they really want to.

[dirtrider]

LBP, socom, resistance 2, where are you??? ps3 software sells SUCK ASS. the only game on this list for ps3 is multiplat. of course the 360 version killed the ps3 sells of COD. sony, let this be a warning: YOUR EXCLUSIVES ARE MAKING YOU GO BANKRUPT. killzone 2, will be another nail in the coffin for sony and its dev studios. what a loss GG and sony are going to take on killzone 2. sad. SDF members- quit trolling n4g and buy some fvckin games.

[IzKyD1331]

@ mynutsjukkensmouth

Seriously dude, juuken stopped being a member on this site months ago, you fail

[yz250]

ultimolu is juuken.

[TrooGamer]

Sony go bankrupt and let MS run the games industry likey the do th PC industry...grow up and realise competition is good for gamers.

Only having one HD machine would mean MS could charge whatever they wanted and get away with it...great new for gamers

*sarcasm*

[LilMissGoddess]

wow....they didnt waste time reports his comment as spam, i dont see where he said anything wrong...wow, people r idiots on here...all because he agreed with someones post?? i thought this was the open zone and i thought that you were allowed to agree with people?? i swear sony fanboys go nuts when they get disagrees and that when xbox fans have something to say they get fvcked everytime....

[LilMissGoddess]

well i gonna have to say i agree with dirtrider, sony is going to go bankrupt if they cant get there ps3 fans that they claim they are dont go and support them like they do on here...if you truly love it so much like you all act, why not get games for it...why spend so much time on here defending the box and play it more, that's right...its good for a movie player when there isn't many games for it that are good...lol good job nintendo and microsoft!!!

[yz250]

sony better really look hard at their stance in america right now. in the last few months they have gotten nothing but bad news. software sells are awful, hardware sells aren't that good- compared to the competition. sony: start advertising, swallow your pride, and provide a damn price cut. WAKE UP sony, this generation of gaming is passing you by!!!

[mboojigga]

Wow. Not one exclusive title for the PS3 and a multiplatform game is on the list out of 20. I thought 2008 was the year of the PS3? I thought with the lineup for Fall surely the PS3 would sale systems based on that very lineup. It is time for some of the fanboys to simply give up with the doomsday come back scenarios. I can't wait to try out Killzone 2 next month but at the same time I am not naive to think this one game is supposed to sale systems for the rest of the year. Please no one say price drop because they are already bleeding. If Killzone doesn't sale next month no price drop is going to help. Sony is to blame for marketing themselves out of the market. MS is not at fault that they(planned) to launch Nov 05. Sony delayed themselves because of BR. Wow not 1 exclusive is up there. That is sad.

[Drealmcc0y]

Dayum, and PS3 fanboys wonder why developers are jumping in, the numbers speak for themselves

[Sonyslave3]

360 is were all the $$$$$ at

ahhahahahahahahah look at all the dis agree i didn't even mention ps3 ahahhahahahh.