The Top 100 Selling Games of the 21st Century

[TimPV3]

Apologize in advance if this has been posted, I did my best search without being able to include "top" or "100"

http://www.next-gen.biz/page1.html

Quick Rundown:

100.

Ninja Gaiden
99.

NFL Fever 2002
98.

50 Cent: Bulletproof
97.

Virtua Fighter 4
96.

Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time
95.

Dark Cloud
94.

NBA Ballers
93.

Fuzion Frenzy
92.

Pikmin
91.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
90.

State Of Emergency
89.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
88.

MX Unleashed
87.

The Incredibles
86.

Kirby Air Ride
85.

MechAssault
84.

DDRMAX 2
83.

SSX 3
82.

Def Jam Vendetta
81.

Eye Toy
80.

Super Monkey Ball 2
79.

Test Drive
78.

Sly Cooper & The Thievius Raccoonus
77.

Hot Shots Golf 3
76.

Conflict: Desert Storm
75.

Onimusha Warlords
74.

X-Men: Legends
73.

Star Fox Adventures
72.

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
71.

Tetris Worlds
70.

Shrek 2
69.

Soul Calibur II
68.

Fight Night 2004
67.

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom
66.

Crazy Taxi
65.

Burnout 3: Takedown
64.

Spy Hunter
63.

Resident Evil Code Veronica X
62.

Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights
61.

Twisted Metal Black
60.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses
59.

Dead Or Alive 3
58.

NFL Street
57.

ESPN NBA 2K5
56.

Pac-Man World 2
55.

MVP Baseball 2005
54.

Lego Star Wars
53.

The Getaway
52.

Mario Party 4
51.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004
50.

God Of War
49.

Ratchet & Clank
48.

Devil May Cry
47.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
46.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
45.

The Sims
44.

WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth
43.

Project Gotham Racing
42.

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
41.

Call Of Duty: Finest Hour
40.

NCAA Football 06
39.

Enter The Matrix
38.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
37.

Animal Crossing
36.

Metroid Prime
35.

Tekken Tag Tournament
34.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
33.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals
32.

Midnight Club: Street Racing
31.

Star Wars: Battlefront
30.

James Bond: Agent Under Fire
29.

Fable
28.

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
27.

True Crime: Streets of L.A.
26.

Max Payne
25.

The Simpsons: Road Rage
24.

NBA Live 2005
23.

ESPN NFL 2K5
22.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
21.

Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies
20.

ATV Off Road Fury
19.

Jak And Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
18.

NBA Street
17.

Dragonball Z: Budokai
16.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
15.

Spider-Man: The Movie
14.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
13.

Zelda: The Wind Waker
12.

Mario Kart: Double Dash
11.

Final Fantasy X
10.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
9.

Super Mario Sunshine
8.

Medal of Honor Frontline
7.

Kingdom Hearts
6.

Need For Speed: Underground
5.

Super Smash Bros Melee
4.

Madden NFL 2004
3.

Gran Turismo 3:A-Spec
2.

Halo
1.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Portables/PC weren't included, just current gen system sales.

had 10 games in the top 100

had 14 games in the top 100

had 76 games in the top 100 (Proof having the least capable and hardest to develop for system means very little I suppose)

Discuss.

 

[Cao Cao]

Just keep in mind folks, this list balances the Total Sales, Total Revenue, and GameRankings score for each game to determine their ranking. Also, they only included the highest selling game in a franchise on the list, to ensure that big franchises don't dominate the list.

I'm just saying this because I know people are going to be angry at Next-Gen for some of the rankings, especially #98.

 

[zewone]

[quote name='TimPV3']

had 76 games in the top 100 (Proof having the least capable and hardest to develop for system means very little I suppose)[/QUOTE]
Ignorance is bliss.

 

[epobirs]

I call shennanigans. Reducing each franchise to one title distorts the power of the major franchises. As shown there is no way to discern whether Halo 2, for example, closely trails Halo in sales or was a bomb. Gamerankings scores have no meaning in a list otherwise weighted by sales and profits.

They go through so much backbending and convoluted processing of the data the list is almost meaningless. I'd find it much more useful to see the three categories, sales, profits, critical reception, treated separately and see how the three list contrast.

 

[shipwreck]

I'm so confused as to why they would only count one game from a franchise. It makes the list almost pointless to me.

And they threw Mario Golf, Mario Strikes, Mario Superstar Baseball, & Mario Power Tennis all under Mario Golf. They could have just provided us with a nice list of the actual top 100 games, but instead decided to fool around with the data so much that it's now confusing and meaningless.

Yet somehow, they don't mention Shrek as another game in the Shrek 2 franchise of games. And for other games in the SpongeBob franchise they simply list "Various". And apparently, there was never a sequel for "The Getaway". Half-assery at it's best.

A couple of entries that I have to question:

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
VU Games / Traveller's Tales
Platform: PS2
Released: October '01
Estimated Sales: 1.7 million
Revenues: $45 million
Franchise Sales: 2 million
Game ranking: 69.1%
OFH: Various forgettable spin-offs

Wait, so Wrath Of Cortex sold 1.7 million on the PS2 and then the Crash series could only manage 300,000 copies sold of "various spinoffs" and Wrath Of Cortex across multiple platforms. I find this extremely difficult to believe.

Medal of Honor Frontline
Electronic Arts / Dreamworks
Platform: PS2
Released: May '02
Estimated Sales: 2.5 million
Revenues: $95 million
Franchise Sales: 34.3 million
Game ranking: 86.5%
OFH: European Assault; Rising Sun

No freaking way did this franchise sell 34.3 million copies. That's a typo, that's probably supposed to be either 3.X or 4.X million.

Halo
Microsoft Game Studios / Bungie
Platform: Xbox
Released: November 2001
Estimated Sales: 4.2 million
Revenues: $170 million
Franchise Sales: 9.3 million
Game ranking: 95.7%
OFH: Halo 2

Okay, let's see 9.3 million minus 4.2 million = 5.1 million. Why was Halo listed instead of Halo 2? Some of these franchise numbers aren't as easy to dissect, but when there were only two games and it only came out on one console, the math isn't that hard. The only thing I can think of is that they are counting sales of the Halo 2 map pack as well, but if that's the case you would think that they would have mentioned that in the franchise section. Regardless, I thought it was pretty well known that Halo 2 sold more than Halo.

 

[botticus]

Well, it's not quite as shoddy as it seems:

Games are ranked by units sold; then by revenue generated.

So it seems they're ranking them based on the number sold, and then in case of ties they take revenue into consideration.

In the event of a tie, games are then ranked by 'most recently released' and then by Gameranking average review scores.

Then if there is still a tie, they look at the release date and GameRankings score.

The whole decision on dealing with franchises remains idiotic though, unless they change it to "Top Selling Franchises" and take the franchise sales into consideration.

 

[lordxixor101]

I also have to complain about the list allowing only one franchise. It really distorts the value of some of the games on the list. I mean, where does Crash Wrath of Cortex really rank? We know several franchises (GTA, Halo, Madden) probably put multiple games ahead of it. But, how many?

Interesting sot at a list, but I think trying to make sure the list isn't dominated by certain franchises skews the truth (that certain franchises do dominate the industry).