God of War: A Sales History - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 May 2012 / 44,381 Views
Welcome to this week’s edition of “A Sales History.” This week we will be taking a look at the sales history of the Sony platform exclusive God of War franchise. Last week we looked at sales of the mainline Grand Theft Auto games and the week before that Mass Effect. If there is a particular franchise (no matter how obscure) you want to see the sales history for, requests are always welcome.
The God of War franchise is a hack and slash style video game and is based around Greek Mythology. God of War I, II, and III, the main trilogy, was developed by the Santa Monica division for Sony Computer Entertainment, while the PSP installments were developed by Ready at Down Studios.
Sales Overview
As you can see from the graph above, the God of War franchise has for the most part steady sales from the PlayStation 2 to the PlayStation 3 despite the drop in hardware sales between the two platforms. God of War II sold slightly less than the original, but the third game in the main trilogy increased sales over the first two. The God of War Collection contains the first two games in the series. The first PSP game Chains of Olympus sold comparably to the home console versions, however sales of Ghost of Sparta has not lived up to the sales of the other games.
In the chart above, the God of War franchise has achieved lifetime to date sales of 18.29 million. The main trilogy is the three bestselling games in the franchise with combined sales of 11.95 million and if you count the PlayStation 3 collection of the first two games it is 14.42 million.
If you take a look at the ratio of sales of each game to the number of consoles sold for the platform they are on, more PlayStation 3 owners have purchased God of War games. One in 15 PlayStation 3 owners has purchased God of War III and one in 26 has purchased the God of War Collection. Taking a look at the PlayStation 2 games, one in 39 bought the original God of War, while one in 42 bought God of War II. One in 24 PSP owners have bought God of War: Chains of Olympus and one in 93 bought God of War: Ghost of Sparta.
Platform
Looking at the overall sales of the franchise the PlayStation 2 has the biggest piece of the pie with 42 percent of sales for the God of War franchise, with sales reaching 7.61 million. The PlayStation 3 is just behind it with 37 percent of the sales and 6.81 million units sold. PlayStation 3 God of War sales are most likely going to pass the PlayStation 2 with the release of God of War: Ascension in Spring 2013. PSP sales lag behind with 3.87 million units sold and 21 percent of the sales.
Predictions for Future Releases
God of War: Ascension was officially announced on April 19 via trailer and is a prequel to the main trilogy. The game will be released exclusively on the PlayStation 3 in Spring 2013. God of War III sold 1.23 million units in its opening week in March 2010. There were also 35.02 million PlayStation 3s sold at that time. Expect Ascension to have a bigger opening with PlayStation 3 sales to be a little more than double what they were when God of War III launched. However expect sales to also drop off a lot quicker. Sales will most likely be between 1.3 million and 1.5 million worldwide for its launch. The game will likely sell around 3.5 million units by the end of 2013 and four million lifetime, however it depends if the PlayStation 4 is released during the holiday 2013.
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@William D'Angelo. Why wasn't the trilogy edition included in this? 0.12m should be added to God of War III and God of War Collection for a slightly more accurate look at GOW's sales history. GOW3 = 4.46m, GOW C= 2.59m. Please correct that.
And I say slightly more accurate because I know God of War III is heavily undertracked, no way did GOW:CoO sell almost 100k more in the rest of the world than GOW3, that's 100% Impossible. God of War III is undertacked by about 200-300K.
I bet the original God of War reached 4m, and God of War II was probably much closer to 4m than Vgchartz thinks.
I think God of War: Ascension will sell 1.5m+ first week, 4m by the end of 2013 and 5.75M+ lifetime, more if the PS4 is backwards compatible.
And another problem with this sales history is that the God of War: Origins Collection wasn't included. So this needs to be updated with The God of War Trilogy edition for GOW3 & Collection separately and the Origins Collection needs to be added.
I forgot about God of War: Origins Collection.
It is a bit obvious why Ghost of Sparta did not sell high numbers. The game was released in a time when the PSP was pirated heavily, and also lets not forget that the game was released on day 1 on PSN; so it could have already passed the 1.5M mark.
Also , GOWIII is heavily undertracked, you guys must check with your sources those numbers, because they dont make sense at all. I bet this game has already sold 5M to costumers.
Yeah, I would say so that the GOW III sales are indeed undertracked.
As I've said a million times, God of War III is blatantly undertracked. And both God of War collections and PSP games are available digitally, the franchise has probably passed 20 million by now.
It would be nice to see a thread like this with Final Fantasy.
I agree, especially since the franchise covers many different systems
That would be a very time consuming event. But I would love to see how that franchise has done.
@William D'Angelo. Why wasn't the trilogy edition included in this? 0.12m should be added to God of War III and God of War Collection for a slightly more accurate look at GOW's sales history. GOW3 = 4.46m, GOW C= 2.59m. Please correct that.
And I say slightly more accurate because I know God of War III is heavily undertracked, no way did GOW:CoO sell almost 100k more in the rest of the world than GOW3, that's 100% Impossible. God of War III is undertacked by about 200-300K.
I bet the original God of War reached 4m, and God of War II was probably much closer to 4m than Vgchartz thinks.
I think God of War: Ascension will sell 1.5m+ first week, 4m by the end of 2013 and 5.75M+ lifetime, more if the PS4 is backwards compatible.
Psp was heavily pirated
GoW Origins Collection is missing
I would like to see a Sales History for either Gran Turismo and/or Jak and Daxter (including the PSP titles Daxter and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier)
Goes to show how little the total consolebase has to do with sales at times. PS2 vs PS3 console sales against Ps2 vs PS3 GoW sales, no real relation there.
Nice story,fun gaming,but the series need another push---make it an open world slash and hack RPG,and new God of War,God of War can be changed to other ones.
You are missing: 1) Trilogy, 2) Origins HD pack for PS3..WEAK
It's Ready At 'Dawn', not 'Down'.
Interesting analysis. I actually think Ascension could sell bigger numbers than GOWIII, I also expect it will probably give GOWIII a bit of a boost as well.
Where are GOW collection 2 numbers?
Let's not forget that it is also available digitally.
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