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Top 10 in Sales - 2008 - The Year of Nintendo - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 18 June 2013 / 7,274 Views

Welcome to the ‘Top 10’ weekly feature. Each week we will be taking a look at the top 10 selling games in a particular genre, platform, most recent month, even sprinkling in the top 10 selling games from a past year. All sales specified will be worldwide, unless stated otherwise. If there is a particular top 10 you want to see leave a comment and it may be featured in a future top 10.

This week we will be looking at the top 10 selling games in the year 2008. Last week we looked at the top 10 selling games in May 2013 and the week before that the top 10 selling Sonic games.

Top 10 Selling Games in 2008

Looking at the top 10 bestselling games in the year 2008, two of the games were released in 2005, three in 2006, one in 2007, and four in 2008.

The two titles released in 2005 sold a combined 10.02 million units or 5.01 million units on average per title.  The three titles released in 2006 sold a combined 38.58 million units or 12.86 million units on average per title. The four titles released in 2008 sold a combined 33.39 million units or 8.35 million units on average per title.

The top 10 bestselling games in May 2013 sold a combined 94.67 million units. One title topped 20 million units sold and the top four topped 10 million units sold. The top eight titles sold more than five million units and the entire top 10 sold more than four million units.

Eight of the top 10 titles in 2008 are on Nintendo platforms. Five of the titles are for the Wii and three are for the DS. The five Wii titles are also the five bestselling titles in 2008. One title is on the Xbox 360 and one on the PlayStation 3. These two titles are two versions of Grand Theft Auto IV.

The five Wii titles sold a combined 67.46 million units or 71.3 percent of the total games sold in the top 10. The three DS titles sold a combined 14.98 million units or 15.8 percent of the total games sold in the top 10. The two versions of Grand Theft Auto IV sold a combined 12.23 million units or 12.9 percent of the total games sold in the top 10.

Top 10 Selling Games in 2008

The top 10 bestselling games in May 2013 as a graph really shows how the Wii dominated the video game market at its peak. However, the top title, Wii Sports, was bundled with every Wii at the time.  

Breaking the top 10 down by publisher eight of the titles were published by Nintendo and two titles were published by Rockstar. The eight Nintendo titles are for the Wii and DS and sold a combined 82.44 million units or 87.1 percent of the total games sold in the top 10.

Here are the sales outside the top 10: The top 14 titles sold more than four million units and the top 40 titles sold more than two million units. The top 116 titles sold more than one million units and the top 284 titles sold more than 500,000 units.

Nintendo had the two bestselling platforms in 2008. Nintendo sold 29.47 million DS’s, and 24.09 million Wii’s. Sony sold 14.05 million PSP’s and 10.27 million PlayStation 3’s. Microsoft sold 10.82 million Xbox 360’s.

There were 176.92 million games sold for the Wii, 108.91 million games sold for the Xbox 360 and 88.79 million games sold for the PlayStation 3. There were 155.30 million games sold for the DS and 48.08 million games sold for the PSP.

Nintendo sold 154.69 million games, Sony sold 24.10 million games and Microsoft sold 16.62 million games. Electronic Arts sold 64.73 million games, Activision sold 53.94 million games and Ubisoft sold 47.32 million games.

Contact VGChartz at wdangelo@vgchartz.com


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8 Comments
Nickyjamesy (on 18 June 2013)

I still love and play on my wii

  • +6
Ljink96 (on 18 June 2013)

Man, the Wii was a beast!

  • +6
Gamerace (on 18 June 2013)

And people said no one bought games for their Wiis...

  • +3
late_release (on 20 June 2013)

Hope they enjoyed the profit while it lasted. For what is there to see, it's not going to happen this (8th) gen.

  • +1
sethnintendo (on 19 June 2013)

Wii Sports + Wii Fit + Wii Play + Mario Kart + Brawl = KO

  • +1
drakesfortune (on 22 June 2013)

Say what you want, but 2008 was the year Nintendo burned the candle at both ends...and then the candle burned out. Wii was both a massive success for Nintendo, and also the beginning of the end for them. I think that's what history will show. The Wii U is such an abominable failure, and it's the success of the Wii that lead Nintendo to release it. I hope Nintendo survives, but they just feel spent to me. Their new hardware is no good. Their main selling feature (the touch screen controller) isn't appealing. Their games feel stale and old, and out of touch. I don't want another Zelda. I'm sick of Mario.

Honestly Nintendo isn't leading the way, making the NEW IP we want to play anymore. Zelda, Mario, Metroid and their ilk from the 80's and 90's were cutting edge. They were the games people of ALL age groups wanted to play. That's not the case anymore. Times have moved on, and Nintendo is now riding a wave from 20 years past. I just don't see how it carries them much longer. Good God, if they are going to rehash all of their old IP, do you think we could get a frickin' 2d Metroid game for the Wii U? WTF, they've done everything else, why not that? That's something the fans REALLY want. I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Ultimately though, they need new IP. They need to find a way to be relevant, and that will entail changing their culture. If they don't do that, they will be out of the console business during the next console cycle.

  • 0
Araknie (on 19 June 2013)

With the Wii U i'm still playing Wii games, right now Samurai Warriors 3 and One Piece Unlimited Cruise 1, but i have also the second.

  • -1
Lisa19 (on 19 June 2013)

my buddy's ex-wife makes $72/hr on the internet. She has been laid off for ten months but last month her pay check was $15839 just working on the internet for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more.......... Cat48.com

  • -2