Top 10 Selling Games in 2009

by William D'Angelo, posted on 28 October 2013 / 10,990 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. As a note all sales figures are retail only.

This week we will be looking at the top 10 selling games in 2009. Last week we looked at the top 10 selling games in September 2013 and the week before that the top 10 selling games in 2013 through September.

Looking at the top 10 bestselling games in 2009, six were released that year. Also two were released in 2006, one in 2007 and one in 2008. The six games released in 2009 sold a combined 50.57 million units or 8.43 million units on average. The two games released in 2006 sold a combined 24.7 million units or 12.35 million units on average.

The top 10 bestselling games in 2009 have sold a combined 91.53 million units. Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii all sold more than 10 million units. The top nine titles sold more than five million units.

There are two different versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in the top 10. The two versions for each game are for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The two versions sold a combined 15.11 million units.  That would put it above every game in 2009, except Wii Sports which was bundled with every Wii outside the US.

Breaking the sales down by platform there are seven Wii games, two Xbox 360 games and one PlayStation 3 game.  The seven Wii games sold a combined 71.94 million games or 10.28 million units on average. The two Xbox 360 games sold a combined 13.25 million games or 6.63 million units on average.

The top 10 selling games in 2009 as a graph really shows how Nintendo dominated the top of the charts during this time. Seven of the top 10 games are on a Nintendo platform and all of those games were developed by Nintendo.

Eight of the top 10 games are first party while, only two of the games in the top 10 are third party. Seven of the eight first party titles are published by Nintendo, while the other one, Halo 3: ODST, is published Microsoft. The third party games are the two versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and are published by Activision.

Here are the sales figures outside the top 10: The top 31 games sold more than two million units and the top 84 games sold more than one million units. The top 211 games sold more than 500,000 units and the top 604 games sold more than 200,000 units.

There were 81.33 million units of hardware sold in 2009. There were also 576.31 million games sold in 2009.

The DS was the bestselling platform in 2009 with 27.28 million units sold. There have also been 9.92 million PSP’s sold.

The Wii was the bestselling home console in 2009 with 21.05 million units sold. There have also been 13.02 million PlayStation 3’s sold, and 10.06 million Xbox 360’s sold.

The Wii sold the most software in 2009 with 181.52 million games sold. There have also been 107.11 million games sold for the Xbox 360, and 96.84 million games sold for the PlayStation 3.

The DS sold the most software for a handheld in 2009 with 143.86 million games sold. There have also been 40.80 million games sold for the PSP.

Contact VGChartz at wdangelo@vgchartz.com


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7 Comments

FujiokaMidori
FujiokaMidori (on 29 October 2013)

Send this to January 2010... feels weird to see this right now. The era where the casual market was blooming... then smartphones and tablets took over that market.

  • +1
NoirSon
NoirSon (on 03 November 2013)

That is actually a bit of a misconception.

The casual gamer didn't suddenly drop buying games and switch to smartphones and tablets, Nintendo pretty much failed to meet future demands. Just Dance 2 & 3 released in 2010 and 2011 both sold nearly 10 million each. Nintendo pretty much stopped making good casual games after 2010 for the Wii and just tried to phone it on cheap party style games, mini game collections or selling on Mario multiplayer goodness.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf might be the first really good attempt at that market since 2010 with a game of substance.

  • 0
late_release
late_release (on 29 October 2013)

Yet Nitendo can't be saved once again

  • 0
Rogerioandrade
Rogerioandrade (on 29 October 2013)

Golden Nintendo years

  • 0
Ledreppe
Ledreppe (on 28 October 2013)

Mario Kart's a beast, it was outselling Modern Warfare 2 on PS3 in 2009 more than 18 months after it's release.

  • 0
ryuzaki57
ryuzaki57 (on 29 October 2013)

Just had a chill... I'm so happy that those dark times are gone

  • -1
anamme
anamme (on 28 October 2013)

So easy to forget how the Wii totally obliterated everything else those first few years. Good times :)

  • -2
ps3-sales!
ps3-sales! (on 28 October 2013)

Every Nintendo game on here is aimed at child audiences besides Mario Kart Wii...

  • -3
IsawYoshi
IsawYoshi (on 28 October 2013)

Is Wii Fit aimed at kids?

  • +2
zorg1000
zorg1000 (on 28 October 2013)

Just because something is appropriate for children, doesnt mean its aimed just at children. Alot of adults enjoy Wii Sports/Resort and NSMB, also Wii Fit is aimed at adults.

  • +2
ListerOfSmeg
ListerOfSmeg (on 28 October 2013)

He just suffers from Nintendo envy. Notice the name and look into his post history. If it carried the Sony name, his opinion would be completely different

  • +2