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Top 100 USA Pre Orders - News

by Miles Taven , posted on 31 January 2012 / 11,002 Views

The Top 100 USA Pre Orders list consists of all retail games released from late 2009 onwards in the USA.








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40 Comments
Millenium (on 31 January 2012)

Nice chart!

Next-Gen could be even bigger on the pre-orders, hopefully by then we'll have a Europe chart. :-)

  • +6
thehusbo (on 31 January 2012)

MAG preorders: 213,557
MAG first week: 169,262...

K.

  • +5
Bail (on 31 January 2012)

7 shooters in the top 10.
Sad, sad generation...

  • +3
Wh1pL4shL1ve_007 Bail (on 31 January 2012)

Cultural shift

  • 0
Aj_habfan Bail (on 31 January 2012)

Still better than fitness games I'd say

  • +1
yo_john117 Bail (on 31 January 2012)

There's nothing sad about it.

  • -1
reviniente Bail (on 01 February 2012)

Nothing sad 'bout having 7 shooters in the top10. 3 Modern Warfares however, is another matter.

  • -2
The_Botman (on 31 January 2012)

Hopefully the next mainline Elder Scrolls can get even greater pre-order numbers.

  • +1
DirtyP2002 (on 31 January 2012)

NA is xbox country.

  • 0
Zim (on 31 January 2012)

A few little things I have noticed. Please note I haven't run figures for these. First the obvious. Generally sequels have a small increase from pre-order to first week, except for a clear exception in CoD which is likely due to it's wide and casual appeal.

It seems that perhaps reviews really do matter. A lot of the games with huge pre-order to first week increases are new games or sequels/franchises people were unsure about. Good examples being Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, AC2, Deus Ex, FF13. All games where people weren't sure of quality before hand either due to new ip, long dead franchise, negative hype or middling reviews for prior game then got very good to excellent reviews.

Whereas games like Duke Nukem, Brink, Dante's inferno, medal of honor saw either very small increases or decreases.

Interestingly I have always felt that with gamers there is a sort of mental divide between games above 80% which are strong buys and games under 80% that are either not worth it or something they will wait for. Of the games I checked (not all so lots of room for error) the ones that saw big increases from pre-orders to first week all scored over 80%, the ones that saw small increases or decreases all scored under 80% (using gamerankings).

Only thing that immediately sticks out is Dark souls. However I suspect it's high difficulty put a lot of people off.

Long post I know, sorry.

  • 0
Carl (on 31 January 2012)

Also, The Old Republic preorders make me laugh. The game only sold slightly more than 600k in 2 Weeks of December. VGChartz had over 950k preorders...

No.

  • 0
Jexy Carl (on 31 January 2012)

I'm pretty sure despite VGChartz best efforts... Bioware and every other gaming company on the planet counts digital sales.

  • -1
Aj_habfan Carl (on 31 January 2012)

So you're saying vgchartz is off by even more?

  • -1
Carl Carl (on 01 February 2012)

NPD don't count digital sales. BioWare quoted NPD numbers...

  • 0
Boutros (on 31 January 2012)

Very cool. But it'd be even cooler if you could include a column for the increase from pre-orders to week one in percentage :D A quick Excel formula could do the trick.

  • 0
Carl Boutros (on 31 January 2012)

I can't wait to see the increases of the games that had more preorders than sales.

  • 0
Boutros Boutros (on 31 January 2012)

He could write 'FAIL' instead :P Or BOMB. Whichever hurts the most.

  • 0
NintendoPie (on 31 January 2012)

Some of these had a really big jump from pre-orders to first week sales.
Very interesting chart by the way!

  • 0
binary solo (on 01 February 2012)

Interesting to see the games with higher pre-orders than FW sales. Looks like "failure to launch" happens most with PS3, somewhat with PC and Wii and infrequently with 360.

Interesting also to see those games with a massive increase (close to double or more) of week 1 over pre-order. Would be cool to colour code the FW sales: red for less than pre-order, black for <50% above pre-order, blue for 50%-99% above pre-order, [insert colour that denotes awesomeness] for 100%+ above pre-order.

  • -1
blkfish92 (on 31 January 2012)

CODCODCOD Not surpised =p

  • -1
DirtyP2002 (on 31 January 2012)

NA is xbox country.

  • -1
happydolphin DirtyP2002 (on 31 January 2012)

This is a pre-orders list. For a chart of overall sales in 2011, visit this link: http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2011/USA/

There, you will find the following breakdown for 2011 total software sales, along with their YoY percentage change from last year.

Hardware:
360 7,476,541 (+5%)
Wii 5,048,112 (-32%)
3DS 4,636,233 (-32%)
PS3 4,468,855 (-4%)
DS 3,624,275 (-57%)
PSP 1,248,511 (-31%)

Software:
360 87,765,881 (+16%)
Wii 71,517,981 (-25%)
PS3 61,987,172 (+11%)
DS 43,645,895 (-23%)
3DS 11,238,751 (-23%)
PSP 8,289,953 (-30%)
PC 7,404,681 (+60%)

When keeping things in context, 360 is xbox country in 2011 hardware-wise, true. Software-wise, also in 2011. But notice the Wii is in decline since prior (it's since post-2009). For an idea of how things were, here is 2010:

Hardware:
DS 8,394,877 (-19%)
Wii 7,378,500 (-18%)
360 7,132,622 (+49%)
PS3 4,644,545 (+11%)
PSP 1,816,105 (-26%)

Software:
Wii 95,085,206 (+5%)
360 75,913,202 (+28%)
DS 56,619,246 (-18%)
PS3 55,765,995 (+37%)
PSP 11,772,576 (-23%)
PC 4,623,490 (-23%)

My point is reinforced. Yes, 2011 has been a good year for the 360, and especially (and more importantly) a weak one for Wii, which is eagerly expecting its follow-up console.

  • 0
happydolphin DirtyP2002 (on 31 January 2012)

This is a 2011 pre-orders chart. If you're looking for sales charts, here is where you whould go: http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2011/USA/

Hardware:
360 7,476,541 (+5%)
Wii 5,048,112 (-32%)
3DS 4,636,233 (-32%)
PS3 4,468,855 (-4%)
DS 3,624,275 (-57%)
PSP 1,248,511 (-31%)

Software:
360 87,765,881 (+16%)
Wii 71,517,981 (-25%)
PS3 61,987,172 (+11%)
DS 43,645,895 (-23%)
3DS 11,238,751 (-23%)
PSP 8,289,953 (-30%)
PC 7,404,681 (+60%)

As you can see, the Wii is in decline while the HD twins are generally flat or on the upswing.

  • 0
happydolphin DirtyP2002 (on 31 January 2012)

This is a 2011 pre-orders chart. If you're looking for sales charts, here is where you whould go to Chartz, Yearly, USA in the vgchartz hompage. Here are the sales for 2011.

Hardware:
360 7,476,541 (+5%)
Wii 5,048,112 (-32%)
3DS 4,636,233 (-32%)
PS3 4,468,855 (-4%)
DS 3,624,275 (-57%)
PSP 1,248,511 (-31%)

Software:
360 87,765,881 (+16%)
Wii 71,517,981 (-25%)
PS3 61,987,172 (+11%)
DS 43,645,895 (-23%)
3DS 11,238,751 (-23%)
PSP 8,289,953 (-30%)
PC 7,404,681 (+60%)

As you can see, the Wii is in decline while the HD twins are generally flat or on the upswing.

Here it is for 2010.

Hardware:
DS 8,394,877 (-19%)
Wii 7,378,500 (-18%)
360 7,132,622 (+49%)
PS3 4,644,545 (+11%)
PSP 1,816,105 (-26%)

Software:
Wii 95,085,206 (+5%)
360 75,913,202 (+28%)
DS 56,619,246 (-18%)
PS3 55,765,995 (+37%)
PSP 11,772,576 (-23%)
PC 4,623,490 (-23%)

Keeping things into perspective, the 360 is winner of NA in 2011, , but that is because the Wii is is eagerly awaiting its successor this year. Still as you can see the Wii was winner in sales for 2010. Also, in the top 100 for 2010, you will see an assortment of games from all platforms, with the Wii holding 9 games in the top 20.

  • 0
happydolphin DirtyP2002 (on 31 January 2012)

I forgot to mention above that, post-2009 is decline for Wii, but 2009 and prior, the Wii was the clear winner in terms of sales in NA. Take a look at the charts yourself. ;)

Just as an example, here is 2009:

Hardware:
DS 10,369,446 (+2%)
Wii 8,989,309 (-9%)
360 4,787,281 (-2%)
PS3 4,172,494 (+20%)
PSP 2,452,361 (-36%)

Software:
Wii 90,141,989 (+8%)
DS 68,773,746 (+2%)
360 59,287,153 (-2%)
PS3 40,837,533 (+19%)
PSP 15,251,011 (-9%)

The pattern is pretty much the same in 2008.

  • 0
Wh1pL4shL1ve_007 (on 31 January 2012)

Wow, X360 kinda ate it all.

  • -1
VGKing Wh1pL4shL1ve_007 (on 31 January 2012)

Surprised? This America and 360 has a huge lead over the PS3 here.

  • -3
Argh_College (on 31 January 2012)

Xbox 360 is a beast :o

  • -1
Carl (on 31 January 2012)

Why don't Nintendo fans preorder as much as 360/PS3 fans, despite the huge userbase advantage?

  • -2
menx64 Carl (on 31 January 2012)

I would say lack of advertising. The only adds we get to see (wii games) are nintendo adds.

  • +1
kivi95 Carl (on 01 February 2012)

Because the most of them are casual gamers(not saing everyone are that but most)

  • 0
happydolphin Carl (on 02 February 2012)

The total pre-order versus total sales numbers (not in this article) would show that much of the Nintendo games on this list end up being picked up by consumers at the shelf.

  • 0
Etanclan4life (on 31 January 2012)

Haha, top 5 are xbox 360, really shows how much they dominate the multi console games.

  • -2
ethomaz Etanclan4life (on 31 January 2012)

In US.

  • +3
binary solo Etanclan4life (on 01 February 2012)

...in the USA.

  • 0
dsage01 (on 01 February 2012)

Amazing how big the first week of PS3 games are when compared to the preorders and how small the 360 games first week's are when compared to their massive preorders.

  • -3
alonzodono (on 31 January 2012)

Oh wow . Socom 4 : 160 198 pre order ... First week : 155,414 ...
Are you serious vgchartz ?

  • -4
goldeneye0074eva2222 (on 31 January 2012)

it's a small generation after all it's a small generation after all a small small generation

  • -6
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