The 50 Best Selling Console Games of this Decade (So Far)
by Jacob Mazel, posted on 08 April 2009 / 148,455 ViewsJacob Mazel
The ‘millennial’ decade, starting on January 1, 2000 at 12:00 AM ends this December 31 at 11:59 PM. With 9.25 years of the decade already concluded, it is time to look at what the top selling games for the decade were, are and will be. In the chart below, sales are listed in millions, and the date represents when the game released in its first videogame market. The sales figures are not necessarily the total of the game but rather the total it sold in the 2000s. In the case of a few games with long tails which released late in the 1990s but sold well enough to make the chart the totals listed are not “lifetime to date totals” but totals from January 1 2000 to March 28, 2009. All games bundled with hardware are included as well. Games with a squiggly line by the sales total have totals between the title above and the title below, but the exact figure in the 2000s was estimated. Outside the top fifty, another four games have sold 5m units this decade.
|
# |
World Sales in 2000-2009 |
Publisher |
Platform |
Debut |
Sales |
|
1 |
Wii Sports |
Nintendo |
Wii |
Nov-06 |
44.50m |
|
2 |
Wii Play |
Nintendo |
Wii |
Dec-06 |
22.70m |
|
3 |
Nintendogs |
Nintendo |
DS |
Apr-05 |
22.09m |
|
4 |
New Super Mario Brothers |
Nintendo |
DS |
May-06 |
18.47m |
|
5 |
Wii Fit |
Nintendo |
Wii |
Dec-07 |
17.89m |
|
6 |
GTA: San Andreas |
Take Two |
PS2 |
Oct-04 |
17.78m |
|
7 |
Brain Training |
Nintendo |
DS |
May-05 |
17.33m |
|
8 |
Pokemon Gold/Silver |
Nintendo |
GB |
Nov-99 |
~17.00m |
|
9 |
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl |
Nintendo |
DS |
Sep-06 |
16.79m |
|
10 |
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire |
Nintendo |
GBA |
Nov-02 |
15.40m |
|
11 |
Mario Kart Wii |
Nintendo |
Wii |
Apr-08 |
15.38m |
|
12 |
Gran Turismo 3: A Spec |
Sony |
PS2 |
Apr-01 |
14.87m |
|
13 |
Mario Kart DS |
Nintendo |
DS |
Nov-05 |
14.56m |
|
14 |
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City |
Take Two |
PS2 |
Oct-02 |
14.20m |
|
15 |
Brain Age 2 |
Nintendo |
DS |
Dec-05 |
13.87m |
|
16 |
Grand Theft Auto III |
Take Two |
PS2 |
Oct-01 |
11.60m |
|
17 |
Animal Crossing: Wild World |
Nintendo |
DS |
Nov-05 |
10.67m |
|
18 |
Pokemon Yellow |
Nintendo |
GB |
Sep-98 |
~10.60m |
|
19 |
Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green |
Nintendo |
GBA |
Jan-04 |
10.49m |
|
20 |
Gran Turismo 4 |
Sony |
PS2 |
Dec-04 |
9.65m |
|
21 |
Halo 3 |
Microsoft |
X360 |
Sep-07 |
9.40m |
|
22 |
Super Smash Brothers Brawl |
Nintendo |
Wii |
Jan-08 |
8.51m |
|
23 |
Halo 2 |
Microsoft |
Xbox |
Nov-04 |
8.46m |
|
24 |
Super Mario Galaxy |
Nintendo |
Wii |
Nov-07 |
8.01m |
|
25 |
Final Fantasy X |
Square-Enix |
PS2 |
Jul-01 |
7.95m |
|
26 |
Super Mario 64 DS |
Nintendo |
DS |
Nov-04 |
7.31m |
|
27 |
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare |
Activision |
X360 |
Nov-07 |
7.21m |
|
28 |
Super Smash Brothers Melee |
Nintendo |
GC |
Dec-01 |
7.08m |
|
29 |
Mario & Sonic at the Olympics |
Sega |
Wii |
Nov-07 |
6.97m |
|
30 |
Mario Kart: Double Dash |
Nintendo |
GC |
Nov-03 |
6.96m |
|
31 |
Grand Theft Auto IV |
Take Two |
X360 |
Apr-08 |
6.95m |
|
32 |
Need for Speed: Underground |
EA |
PS2 |
Nov-03 |
6.49m |
|
33 |
Mario Party 8 |
Nintendo |
Wii |
May-07 |
6.47m |
|
34 |
Halo: Combat Evolved |
Microsoft |
Xbox |
Nov-01 |
6.43m |
|
35 |
Pokemon Crystal |
Nintendo |
GB |
Dec-00 |
6.39m |
|
36 |
Need for Speed: Undergr. 2 |
EA |
PS2 |
Nov-04 |
6.38m |
|
37 |
Pokemon Emerald |
Nintendo |
GBA |
Sep-04 |
6.34m |
|
38 |
Super Mario Sunshine |
Nintendo |
GC |
Jul-02 |
6.28m |
|
39 |
Big Brain Academy |
Nintendo |
DS |
Jun-05 |
6.09m |
|
40 |
Gears of War |
Microsoft |
X360 |
Nov-06 |
5.87m |
|
41 |
Mario Party DS |
Nintendo |
DS |
Nov-07 |
5.59m |
|
42 |
Grand Theft Auto: LCS |
Take Two |
PSP |
Oct-05 |
5.58m |
|
43 |
Metal Gear Solid 2 |
Konami |
PS2 |
Nov-01 |
5.58m |
|
44 |
Grand Theft Auto IV |
Take Two |
PS3 |
Apr-08 |
5.53m |
|
45 |
Kingdom Hearts |
Square-Enix |
PS2 |
Mar-02 |
5.50m |
|
46 |
Super Mario Advance |
Nintendo |
GBA |
Mar-01 |
5.49m |
|
47 |
Super Mario Advance 2: SMW |
Nintendo |
GBA |
Dec-01 |
5.46m |
|
48 |
Mario Kart: Super Circuit |
Nintendo |
GBA |
Jul-01 |
5.45m |
|
49 |
Final Fantasy IX |
Square-Enix |
PS1 |
Jul-00 |
5.30m |
|
50 |
The Legend of Zelda: TP |
Nintendo |
Wii |
Nov-06 |
5.26m |
The distribution of hits in the top fifty selling games of the decade roughly follows where the software sold in the decade. PS1 is the exception to the rule – production shipments for PS1 games were over 300m in the 2000s, but the system had only one game top 5m units in the period, although Driver and Gran Turismo 2 would both be around 4m-5m in the 2000s on PS1.
|
Distribution |
2000s Top 50 Hits |
SW Shipped in 2000s thru 3/09 |
|
PS2 |
10 |
1500m |
|
DS |
10 |
550m |
|
Wii |
9 |
370m |
|
GBA |
6 |
380m |
|
X360 |
4 |
~250m?? |
|
GC |
3 |
220m |
|
GB |
3 |
140m |
|
Xbox |
2 |
~150m?? |
|
PS1 |
1 |
330m |
|
PSP |
1 |
210m |
|
PS3 |
1 |
170m |
Thirty-one of the top titles of the decade through March 2009 are on Nintendo systems. However, based on the shipped software above only about 39% (1.66b out of 4.27b) of all software shipped in this period was for Nintendo platforms, significantly lower than the proportion of top selling titles which are on Nintendo’s platforms.
Another way to look at the chart is to examine the frequency of mega hits in the decade. For instance of the 54 games to top 5m in 2000-2009, only 19 sold over 10 million units.
|
Jan 00 - Mar 09 |
Frequency |
|
20m + Seller |
3/54 |
|
15m + Seller |
11/54 |
|
10m + Seller |
19/54 |
|
9m + Seller |
21/54 |
|
8m + Seller |
24/54 |
|
7m + Seller |
28/54 |
|
6m + Seller |
39/54 |
|
5m+ Seller |
54/54 |
Past five or six million units, there is a much slower erosion rate of when a title will completely stop selling. Over 70% of the titles to sell over 5m units in the decade also sold over 6m units. Another 70%+ of the titles to sell over 6m units in the decade also sold over 7m units. The rate of titles to hit 7m and also 8m, 8m and also 9m, and 9m and also 10m gets slightly higher each level up into the stratosphere of success. Still only about six titles a year on average have reached the 5m status in the 2000s. The distributions of these hits by release looks like so:
|
WW Launch |
Top 50 By Year |
|
1998 |
1 |
|
1999 |
1 |
|
2000 |
2 |
|
2001 |
9 |
|
2002 |
4 |
|
2003 |
2 |
|
2004 |
7 |
|
2005 |
7 |
|
2006 |
6 |
|
2007 |
7 |
|
2008 |
4 |
It should be very difficult for titles released in 2009 to join the top fifty list for the 2000s. By the end of the year, the criteria for entering should be even higher since titles like Call of Duty: World at War which just missed the cutoff continue to sell well. The only ‘announced’ title with a shot is probably Wii Sports Resort. High profile titles like Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy XIII, and the next Call of Duty will either not have enough time or not release in enough regions during 2009. A few other titles released earlier in the decade, like Guitar Hero III and Mario & Sonic DS may also have a shot at reaching the threshold needed to be in the top fifty selling games of the decade.
At the end of the year, when the 2000s decade ends Vgchartz will issue an official list of the top selling games of the 2000s.
Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com


