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Million selling games by Console – 2nd Season

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Back in January I took a look at which consoles had the most games to have sold over a million units.

At that time the Xbox 360 was easily the top console in this regards but has anything changed since then?

Luckily for me VGChartz now has a tab that sorts this out for me so I don’t have to trawl through the sales charts anymore.

For me the number of million sellers by console is the clearest indication of which console has the better games and greater following. While the Wii is the absolute undisputed leader in regards to hardware sales the same cannot be said for software.

In the previous generation the PlayStation was easily the top console for gaming with the Xbox 1 and Gamecube tying for second place.

So onto the figures…

Playstation 3
The Playstation has had to play catch up as the 360 launched over a year before and this has to be taken in consideration. However it has also been in the wild for coming on 18 months now and only has 10 game which have sold over a million units. What is even worse is that 2 of those are mainly bundled games (Motorstorm and Resistance 2).

Actually the only non bundled Playstation exclusive to break the million barrier has been Uncharted which is a first party game and has moved 1.39 million units.

Result: Must try harder

Nintendo Wii
The Wii has taken the world by storm and has outsold it’s competitors month on month all over the planet since it was launched. However one of the biggest criticisms levelled against the Wii is that it doesn’t have any games, strange then that is knocked the PS3 into last spot in this race.

The Wii since launch has 22 games which have broken the million barrier, obviously two of it’s games are heavily bundled (Wii Sports & Wii Play) but that still leaves them with 20 unbundled games.

However 13 of those 22 are published by Nintendo which leaves them with the old problem of not getting enough third party buy in.

Result: Very good but needs to broaden it’s horizons

Xbox 360
Which brings us to the current undisputed leader in gaming sales. The Xbox 360 now has 35 games which have sold over a million. The bundled games for the Xbox have been different worldwide but in general they have bundled the following: Forza 2, Dead or Alive 4, Viva Pinata and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. All of which are now million sellers which brings their pure total down to 31. Way more than anyone else

What is even better for Microsoft is that in the last gen they only managed 38 titles overall so they are obviously going to be overtaking that very shortly.

There is a downside however, over the past 3 months they have only added 4 titles to this esteemed list which is the only downside to this current trend.

Result: Well done, keep up the good work

So that’s it, I hope you enjoyed this edition and just for you I have put together a pretty chart for those to lazy to read the entire article.

  Last Gen Now January
Xbox 38 35 31
Nintendo 38 22 16
PlayStation 205 10 7

VGChartz.com | Worldwide Million Sellers

Last Updated: April 2, 2008

20 Comments

  1. Fox1

    April 2, 2008 at 09:19

    Make that 36 games with RSV2 hitting 2 million

    Reply

  2. abe

    April 2, 2008 at 10:00

    What was this article pulled together to make all the xbotx feel better about themselves?

    Reply

  3. kay

    April 2, 2008 at 10:20

    Interesting perspective on the market! Surely the software sales figures must influence the game studios’ decisions during development.

    @abe, grow up.

    kay’s last blog post..Cocaine: Now with even more added guilt

    Reply

  4. abe

    April 2, 2008 at 11:14

    Ok Kay, will do. Now you pull the bug out your ass!
    But seriously, I think these numbers make perfect sense, well other than the freak that is the wii (Still dont get why poeple buy it). The fact that the xbox has almost double the install base of the ps3, has many effects one of which results in more games sold = more million selling games. Simple straight forward logic!

    Reply

  5. RossIRSA

    April 2, 2008 at 12:44

    Abe your logic doesn’t make sense. Your saying that because the xbox has double the install base of the ps3 that it should, have more games that pass the million sales mark. So shouldn’t the Wii have the greatest sales?

    By the way Wii is far more intuitive then any other control scheme by far. And is generally very fun just to use let alone play. Hence the greater sales.

    Grow up dude.

    Reply

  6. abe

    April 2, 2008 at 14:46

    Hey I dont like the wii and thats my personal prefrence, I have used and played with it more than enough to come to my decision, its a gimmick at best and nothing more than the hoola hoop of the new millenium, spin it around a few times and it gets old real quick!

    I think the reason the wii doesnt have that many is that most people buy the wii get the bundled games and never buy anymore, either cos they are simply crap or they realise that the console itself is boring.

    And lastly I love people that post things like grow up, its like you couldnt think up anything intelligent to say or any valid way of backing up your comments so you resort to petty tactics!

    Reply

  7. Jinja

    April 2, 2008 at 15:17

    I have to agree, the reason that the 360 versions of games sell so much better is that the install base is that much bigger…

    I may have missed something, but I don’t see how anyone can argue that.

    Jinja’s last blog post..Sick, Twisted…Awesome – Blind Girl

    Reply

  8. abe

    April 2, 2008 at 15:28

    I thought so too Jinja!

    Reply

  9. Burns ZA

    April 2, 2008 at 15:32

    Yes Jinja except, as has been pointed out, that theory falls flat when one takes the Wii into the equation.

    Reply

  10. Fox1

    April 2, 2008 at 15:38

    @Jinja- Yes you did miss something… The 360’s games are cheaper 😉

    Reply

  11. Jinja

    April 2, 2008 at 16:08

    @Fox1 – Only in SA! 🙂

    @Burns – The Wii is an oddity, but I think the majority don’t buy the console for the brilliant games on it like Zelda, Metroid Prime, Mario Galaxy… etc…

    They buy it for the sports pack that comes with it! The tennis, bowls and boxing is bloody good fun and I think most of the people who buy the Wii aren’t GAMERS, but just people who want to try this whole video-game-thing out.

    Jinja’s last blog post..Sick, Twisted…Awesome – Blind Girl

    Reply

  12. Messiah

    April 2, 2008 at 17:25

    In my mind the reason the xbox has sold more is because it has been around for a year longer. But that is just my opinion. Seems obvious though 😐

    Reply

  13. LazySAGamer

    April 2, 2008 at 19:30

    @Messiah, that may be the case but the other side of the coin is that the PS3 is not catching up to the 360 at all in regards to million sellers.

    Since the PS3 was released this should have stabilised but it hasn’t, the 360 keeps on extending it’s lead

    Reply

  14. abe

    April 2, 2008 at 21:14

    But that is also the natural progression of a console, the further into its life the more games it pushes out and hence the higher chance of a million selling game, and before people say then why isnt the ps3 catching up its because its an exponential rate!

    Reply

  15. boredhousewife

    April 2, 2008 at 21:16

    By my reckoning if one takes 07 in isolation the Xbox had 14 megasellers (Gears & RSV not included as they were released late 06) excl bundled games (although a case could be made for Forza as it sold million plus pre bundle).

    The PS3 did 7 unbundled megasellers & the Wii did 20 (19 if you dq Zelda for its late 06 release.

    These numbers clearly do not validate the claims from some quarters that the Wii is just being used for WiiSports

    Reply

  16. doobiwan

    April 3, 2008 at 09:39

    The funny thing there is that that’s the wrong way around. I think it’s a fair situation to compare “year 1” sales, so 2006 360 versus 2007 PS3, in which case you’re looking at 21 versus 7! Also consider Sony’s been outselling the 360 LTD.

    I think all it says is what we already know. The attach rate for the 360 and these figures just highlight that gamers game on the 360. The PS3 is a good piece of kit, but it’s a mixed user base.

    And PS3 didn’t have any games in ’07. 😉 Sorry had to get that in there :p

    doobiwan’s last blog post..Evil Genius 101: How to open Xbox Live part 2

    Reply

  17. JimBob

    April 3, 2008 at 10:36

    ‘And PS3 didn’t have any games in ‘07’ – Yawn.

    What’s interesting about these numbers is how quickly the PS3 software sales are ramping up. It added three to the million-seller list in Q1 2008, and at least three more (including R&C, Heavenly Sword, GT:P) will join the list in the next month.

    And there’s still a year of big software ahead: MGS4, Killzone 2, Motorstorm 2, and RFOM 2 are all certain to be million-plus sellers, and other games like LBP may also break the barrier. Despite some earlier doubts, I think the PS3 has proven that it is a viable platform – just this week, admittedly boosted by the massive GT:P, PS3 software outsold the rest in Europe.

    ‘These numbers clearly do not validate the claims from some quarters that the Wii is just being used for WiiSports’

    Considering the size of the Wii’s user base, third-party sales are quite weak, which is why you’re not really seeing Ubisoft, EA, Activision etc fall over themselves to make it the lead platform for their games or bringing real AAA exclusives to the system.

    I reckon there’s the grannies who buy the Wii as a Wii sports machine and hardcore gamers who buy the as a secondary console Wii to play Nintendo games (The traditional Zelda, Mario, Metroid franchises) and the crazy Japanese who love them some Nintendo.

    Reply

  18. abe

    April 3, 2008 at 10:37

    And by just getting that in there, you tear apart your whole argument, LOL!!

    Reply

  19. Jinja

    April 3, 2008 at 10:44

    As a PS3 supporter, I must unfortunately agree with Doobiwan.
    There were no epic games for the PS3 in 07. Nothing that would force my hand into buying one. I will definately be buying one now in June. Hopefully with a MGS4 bundle… ;P

    Final Worldwide Hardware sales for 22 March – 29 March:
    (incl Japan now)

    Wii: 237 973
    PS3: 217 781
    360: 152 537

    Jinja’s last blog post..Sick, Twisted…Awesome – Blind Girl

    Reply

  20. boredhousewife

    April 3, 2008 at 11:36

    Third Party developers want to go multi platform this generation and the hardware limitations of the Wii makes this more difficult. Having said that Nintendo software has always heavily favoured 1st Party IP’s. But considering that 3rd Party Devs accounted for about 85% of PS2 megasellers , Nintendo would be foolish not to encourage better relations with 3rd pty developers.

    Reply

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