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NPD: The Best Selling Game By Year From 1995 - 2017 (Top 3 each year in OP)

OP
OP
MauroNL

MauroNL

What Are Ya' Buying?
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Oct 26, 2017
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ZhugeEX said:
You can see how it lines up with the list in OP.

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So roughly $2 billion revenue in 2007 from just rhythm games? In the US only? Good lord. Amazing to see it take off after 2005 and than slowly dying again after 2009. Its weird how quickly trends die out. Wii Fit, Kinect etc would be similar examples.
 
Flevance

Flevance

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Oct 28, 2017
2,551
Seeing those N64 games is the only thing that surprising.. kinda sad how the things turned out after that tho
 
ZhugeEX

ZhugeEX

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Oct 24, 2017
3,099
lazygecko said:
I saw a list of the top all time PS1 sellers for the US market and none of them sold more than 4 million. A few at the top were at 4 million while most of the big titles were in the 2-3 million range. Sony had a larger yet more diluted market share in terms of software sales, while Nintendo had an insane degree of brand loyalty.
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PS1 had nearly 80 titles that sold over 1 million in the US. N64 had around 30.

But N64 had games like Mario 64, Goldeneye, Mario Kart and Zelda which sold more than the top selling PS1 games.
 

feroca

Banned
May 12, 2018
823
Mortal Kombat 3 in 1995, the same year as the movie.

Mortal Kombat in general always sold great, yet it sells more now than before.
 

Deleted member 17627

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Oct 27, 2017
5,364
COD's consistent popularity is so weird to me because even though its popularity never dwindled, I honestly can't recall the last time I've heard anyone in real life, in all of my social circles, say they bought or were excited for a game in the franchise.

Seeing Rock Band and Guitar Hero on there makes me sad though, those were such fun games and I feel like they could've really been the catalysts that made the rhythm game market in the states get bigger. Sadly, as with most big, new things, they just had to oversaturate the market.
 
LiquidSolid

LiquidSolid

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,731
MauroNL said:
EA still king in the US.

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Makes sense. It wasn't that long ago that Activision was a mid-sized publisher who were dwarfed by EA and even if CoD has dominated the last decade, it's not like EA's sports games stopped selling, plus Battlefield has grown into a huge franchise and Battlefront was done well.

KuwabaraTheMan said:
The complete lack of variety in the best selling games is pretty cringeworthy.

Compare that to the 90s where the best selling game each year was a completely different genre. It's a clear move in the wrong direction.
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Is the MCU and Star Wars' domination of the box office over the last five years a condemnation of Hollywood? Shocking news: Huge mainstream franchises are incredibly popular.
 
Phendrift

Phendrift

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Oct 25, 2017
32,302
Tratorn said:
Yep, because only Nintendo makes games that deserve its sales.
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Kind of referring to the same rehashed IPs taking turns every year since then but whatever
Raijinto said:
I'd imagine it's more to do with the fact that only 5 IPs dominated these last 17 years but sure if that's what you want to read into it.

Edited because I cannot mathematics.
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this
Kill3r7 said:
Why? It shows when the market changed and masses decided to play videogames.
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i mean I guess that's a good thing, it'd be nice to have a bit more variety in their selections though lol
 

Slash12771

Member
Jul 12, 2018
211
Telling list. Before 2001, Nintendo had this in the bag. Correct me if I'm wrong here wasn't the PS1 better selling than n64. After 2001 the list becomes typical with popular western games dominating. Also, rhythm games were really popular back then with 2007 and 2008 having them be the best selling games despite halo 3 and gta 4 release in those years. Say what you want about CoD, but there's no denying that despite all the hate, it still keeps on chugging.
 
Opa-Opa

Opa-Opa

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Cels said:
i think the game sucked but come on now, it got 2nd place, beating madden, fifa, and assassin's creed 4. there was no way it was beating GTAV
Blops 4 isn't gonna win this year either. do you think Blops 4 is a bomba too?
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Er... it was sarcasm.
 
Dany1899

Dany1899

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Dec 23, 2017
4,219
chromatic9 said:
Printer error, same game gets repeated 2009 onwards
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Only GTAV could stop the printer error.
It's incredible how much Call of Duty series sells in the USA and I suppose it's the same for Europe - maybe I can't understand why it's so appealing because I don't like FPS. I understand that everyone has different tastes (for this reason for instance I never force someone to like a genre if they aren't interested), but how did FPS and generally shooters become so huge? Anyway congratulations to Activision Blizzard, they really found a goose what lays the golden egg.
 
Nintenleo

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Nov 9, 2017
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Market trends consolidated for the past 10 years in a way that's a bit sad. But, to be fair, all those Cod games are better than Pokémon Stadium and DK64 :D
 
LiquidSolid

LiquidSolid

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Oct 26, 2017
4,731
KuwabaraTheMan said:
Yes, it is.
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I don't know what to say then, be prepared to complain about every mainstream industry, I guess? Personally, I only get annoyed when things like Michael Bay's shitty Transformers movies are making billions. CoD, MCU and Stars Wars, on the other hand, who cares? If millions of people enjoy them then that's fine, it's not like they're the only things that are doing well.
 
Man God

Man God

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Oct 25, 2017
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ZhugeEX said:
PS1 had nearly 80 titles that sold over 1 million in the US. N64 had around 30.

But N64 had games like Mario 64, Goldeneye, Mario Kart and Zelda which sold more than the top selling PS1 games.
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N64's real successor in a way was the original XBOX, another very top loaded system.
 
ASaiyan

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Oct 25, 2017
7,228
You know, I love Pokemon Stadium. But wow, 2000 must've been a slow year, huh? Lol.

EDIT: Ditto for '99. And I'm one of the few big fans of DK64.
 

Phediuk

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Oct 27, 2017
3,327
Uncleslappy said:
Fascinating. Nintendo dominating the late 90s despite having the less popular console. Then Madden, a quick fling with rhythm games and then Call of Duty. What trend would dethrone CoD? I honestly expected to see much more open world games in the more recent years...
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N64 were more expensive than Playstation games. These figures are by revenue.
 

Deleted member 10737

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damn, i had no idea N64 had the best selling game 5 YEARS in the row. i'm not american so i didn't know it was that dominant there.

and call of duty is just unstoppable. will this be the second year since mw2 that a cod game isn't the best selling game of the year? is rdr2 going to sell more than blops 4?
 
Optimator

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May 5, 2018
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Opa-Opa said:
Yeah... greeeat list...
At least GTA is holding the fort and RDR2 will be this year's top game.

Nintendo just can't compete with multiplataform in the US. San Andreas was actually the last "exclusive" on that list.
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Just calling attention to what ZhugeEX said, quoted below.

ZhugeEX said:
Guitar Hero would still be higher than Halo 3 in 2007 by units. Game was crazy y'all.
Wii Play would be number 1 by units in 2008, only just beating out GTA IV.
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As some have stated, I think the lesson of these numbers is massive audience appeal. Call of Duty doesn't need to be considered a masterpiece or do anything amazing because of the brand and the appeal of that sort of game. It's the sport of choice for the everyman.

I don't mind that video games have massive appeal that they didn't used to, but I wish a lot of the niche genres that used to get a few installments each generation didn't fall by the wayside in the pursuit of this mass appeal.
 
Ridley327

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mazi said:
damn, i had no idea N64 had the best selling game 5 YEARS in the row. i'm not american so i didn't know it was that dominant there.

and call of duty is just unstoppable. will this be the second year since mw2 that a cod game isn't the best selling game of the year? is rdr2 going to sell more than blops 4?
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As much ground as Nintendo lost in Japan and Europe that gen, the US was chugging along quite nicely and really didn't shed too much from the SNES. Nintendo didn't really lose the plot in terms of their traditional audience until the Gamecube, which was not so coincidentally when they shed a lot of their western-focused titles like FPSs.
 
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Jade1962

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Oct 28, 2017
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Having the number one game doesn't make a console dominate. I'd say the PS1 and N64 were pretty close in the U.S. Have a feeling PS1 sold more softeware overall though.
 
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