Top Wii, PS3, X360 Franchises From 2005-2010 - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 11 January 2011 / 10,015 Views
With data for the year now in, VGC can present top franchises of the generation, to date, for the Wii, X360 and PS3. Franchises are defined here as a series relying on certain type of game play from the same company. Thus 2D Mario is different from Mario Kart, and Halo shooters are different from Halo Wars. Bundled games are counted for all systems, as the aim is to see what types of games are in the most homes for each system.
Figures presented below are through 2010, worldwide, and represent million of units sold through to homes. Overall, 2010 continued trends established on the consoles in previous years, with a couple notable exceptions. Microsoft's Kinect-series has rapidly shot up the list as a major franchise as 2010 ended, and several motion-controlled series on Wii have done very well recently too. Overall, Wii and PS3 have three third party franchises over 10m units to date, while the X360 has six (in a year longer on the market).
To highlight similarities and differences between the three markets, use the following legend.
A console exclusive franchise appears only Wii, only on X360, or only on PS3. Series in red are top ten franchises for the HD systems, but not Wii. Black series are big on systems to various degrees. Green series are top 25 - but only on two systems, yellow series are not exclusive, but only big for one system. With all of that in mind, here are the top franchises on the three current consoles to date.
Twenty-two of the top 25 Wii franchises to date are either exclusive (purple) or they sell better on Wii (yellow and green) due to more iterations of the series or higher sales. The only top 25 series on Wii to perform better elsewhere are Call of Duty, Rock Band, and Guitar Hero which all have higher sales on X360 (and PS3 for COD).
Microsoft's system has seven exclusive franchises in its top 25. An additional 15 other franchises, seen in red, green, and yellow are also performing better on X360 than on Wii or PS3, due to higher sales or more iterations of the franchise. PES, Tiger Woods, and Fifa are the only top 25 X360 franchises that have performed better on Wii or PS3 to date.
Sony has eight of the top nine exclusive franchises for PS3 to date. Additionally, Fifa, PES, and Final Fantasy have performed better on PS3 than on Wii on X360. That is to say while 22 of the top 25 franchises on Wii and X360 perform best on those platforms, even if they aren't exclusive to the platform, for PS3 only 12 of the top 25 franchises perform best on PS3. The Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Resident Evil have sold more on Wii (and X360 for the two music games) to date. The remaining 10 non exclusive franchises to chart, Battlefield, Fallout, NBA 2k, Red Dead, Tom Clancy, Need for Speed, Madden, Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, and Red Dead have all sold more units to date on X360. Part of the reason for this is the year long X360 head start, but even so, with the larger X360 userbase in the West, most of these franchises are still bigger on X360 when adjusting for time on the market.
Overall, from 2005 - 2010 on X360, and 2006-2010 on Wii and PS3, there are 15 franchies at about 15m units or more - the mega hits on the current consoles. Ten of the 15 franchises are over 20m units to date. Only two of the 20m franchises are new to video games though, as the other eight existed in the PS2 era and before. Going from the 15m level, only one other new franchise was added besides the two over 20m - Rock Band. However, a number of other franchises probably will get to 15m that are completely new - notably Just Dance, Mario & Sonic, and the Kinect __ Series.
Roughly speaking, these 15 franchises account for 1/3 of all software sold on the three consoles to date. If the list were to expand to 10m+, the figure would probably grow to 40% or more for perhaps as many 30 franchises. Keep in mind that hundreds of games are released every year, and so having 30ish franchises account for such a huge volume of software is rather staggering. At the very least Smash Bros, Gears of War, Just Dance, Kinect __ series, Mario & Sonic, and Resident Evil are over 10m units on the three systems to date - and there have to be other franchises that are as well.
Contact VGChartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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nice lists
i have no problem with the wii series,kinect series or bundles
although i'd include all mario games and add links crossbow training to zelda,that's why people buy it imo,
nice spin on resident evil sells more on the Wii,if the HD boxes had 5 resi games they'd blow the wii out of the water
Very good article thank u !!!
I really don't see Wii Sports and Fit being stopped once the Wii's successor launches - they have become huge IPs (and, I would still say, separate franchises). Obviously the "Wii" prefix would be dropped (and probabaly replaced with the name of the next console), but I don't think we've seen the last of them.
You also added all the MySims Games together. Despite the different gameplay. Beside the traditional ones, there is a racing title, an air fighting title and a party title included.
Great Article.
As I see by these numbers, the top on Wii have a lot of purple and almost all exclusives are first party. Only Just Dance and Carnival Games from third-partys.
No Seece its the opposite. I effectively lowered the Mario totals by splitting it into genres. Mario themed games as its own "franchise" which breaks my own rule could have included Mario & Sonic, Mario Party, Mario Kart, 2D Mario, 3D Mario, and Mario Sports. That would have put it at a far higher total but its clearly the main games that sell the best, and they're completely different genres from sports and racing.
"It's pretty impressive how Mario Kart Wii outsold all Halo's of this gen combined. xD"
It didn't, add Halo Wars and it's ahead.
Also you cut up Mario into 3 segments and group Tom Clancy together? This article needs reworking and have some real thought put into it.
The - 64 branded games for the Nintendo 64 are different. Here is why: with Wii and Kinect, you have series that are not only developed to show off the unique capabilities of the system, but also unlikely to be continued for later platforms. Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Pilotwings 64, DK64, etc were all part of previously established franchises. The 64 at the end was like the Super in the previous era, it was a branding thing, they weren't all part of an "N64" franchise in the way the Wii / Kinect games are for Wii and X360.
Mario 3D and 2D? Really?
You just did that to boost Wii's total #'s ...
I think one of the problems with separating bundled games is that it must be very hard to track how many copies of which games were actually bundled. How many copies of Halo 3 were bundled, and should the Halo series have its own colour because of the partial bundling of that title? It may be that all of the titles shown here have been bundled by one retailer or another at some point.
Is this another article to boast about the sales of the Wii series?
Not only is RolStoppable right but I don't see what warrants the add of Wii Sports.
Kind of the same thing with Kinect Adventure and Sports Champions (if it would have been there).
They should at least have their own color saying that they are bundled.
well it's an interesting article nonetheless
PS: I agree Wii and kinect should be separate and not series themselves.
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I'd agree that some of these groupings are a bit odd, particularly the idea of the Wii _____ series being a franchise - were Mario 64, Pilotwings 64 and Starfox 64 all part of the "64" franchise? I hardly think so. And if IPs are being split into different franchises, then surely the lightgun RE games are different to the 3rd person ones?
I personally see Wii Sports/Play as a different series than Wii Fit. While they both are sports and mini-game related, their approach is very unique:
One focuses on health and exercises improvement, and is aimed at a single player experience. It is something that also encourages daily measurements, and is expected and encouraged that the player uses multiple exercise types.
The other franchise is a party game compilation. It is multiplayer aimed, and there is no encouragement for players to play more than one of the games; just that the option is there. Many times people just play the bowling or the tennis.
This is unfair. Franchise like Fifa, PES, COD and NFS have at least one game every year while MGS and GTA only has one game. List should include average sales per game for all game franchise.
This is unfair. Franchise like Fifa, PES, COD and NFS have at least one game every year while MGS and GTA only has one game. List should include average sales per game for all game franchise.
I think its a bit strange that "Crossbow Training" appears as a Franchise. As far as I know it is just one game. And by your own definition a franchise is a series of games.
This also applies to the two Lego games you listed. However those should be real franchises, as soons as you add all Lego titles together.
No Rol I disagree - the main Wii ___ series games are grouped as an introduction to the joys of motion-control video gaming for long time players and fresh faces. Wii Party, Wii Play, Wii Fit, Wii Sports all broadly have motion controlled "sports" like activities as a large focus as well, in addition to heavy social focus. Moreover, if I split the Wii series up I'd have to split up the Kinect series too - its better this way.
@tarheel91....don't you mean 80/20 rule?
This has been mentioned in other threads, but how does Activision(based on the charts above), not make more profit? Maybe it's because they throw away their talent as soon as it creates some great games for them. And as far as Nintendo goes... It sure is nice to have 20+ years of brand recognition to keep selling the revised versions of everything(Mario Kart) for each new system. I have the new Mario kart and i can't help but to enjoy playing it just like the original back in the day - That's why i bought it!
Classic example of the 20/80 rule.
Fallout is good
Seeing these stats almost makes me wonder why ever developer doesn't make casual games or first-person shooters. I suppose diversity is necessary, as not everyone can make a Call of Duty or Mario. I'm just happy games like Mass Effect 2, which don't have sky-high sales, are still made to the strictest standards.
It's pretty impressive how Mario Kart Wii outsold all Halo's of this gen combined. xD
And it's actually relatively close to the overall Guitar Hero sales across all platforms, too, I see now. Just wow. O_O
