Edge lists top selling games of '08

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jan 28th 2009 9:57AM

Combining European and North American sales data, Edge has compiled a list of the top selling games of 2008. The figures are "guesstimates," due to the nature of how sales data is represented, but the site attempts to rank 60 games, all of which sold over a million copies. The top six are:

Grand Theft Auto IV - 13 million
Mario Kart Wii -11 million
Guitar Hero (various) - 10 million
Wii Fit - 9 million
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 7 million
Call of Duty: World at War - 7 million

The findings nearly match the North American NPD figures, with the exception of Madden, which slides down once Europeans get thrown into the equation. We're checking with NPD to see if it plans to release another global report -- in conjunction with Chart-Track and Enterbrain -- to the public. What will we bicker and complain about otherwise?

Update: NPD let us know a global software list should be available "early next week."

Source

Tags: grand-theft-auto, grand-theft-auto-iv, gta-iv, Microsoft, Nintendo, PS3, rockstar, take-two, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (73)

I think Mario Kart is the big surprise on that list. Anyone could have predicted the success of the rest of top six, with the possible exception of World at War. But 11 million is pretty good numbers for what is honestly just a rehashed racing game. Wonder if it was the little plastic wheel that "real" gamers don't care about?

That one doesn't surprise me at all. It appeals to the casuals and to the old school hardcore MK players. Everyone I know that bought a Wii has bought that game and Wii Play with it.

I agree with VidGuy. I was surprised to see Kart on there too. I thought a lot of people more or less blew it off as not being as fun as the older versions. I don't know of anyone playing it and talking about it personally. I imagine that the casual market grabbed a lot more copies of it than I expected.

"I thought a lot of people more or less blew it off as not being as fun as the older versions. I don't know of anyone playing it and talking about it personally."

That right there should tell you how much influence those of us on the internet really have or how in touch we are.

Yup.

OK Playstation Fanboys, lets cry that Sony completely screwed up. Nintendo did when the PS came out. It is now Sony's turn. Video game cycle is so small and they haven't been around that long. So why get all upset because people are buying video games. My money is on Nintendo and will always be with Nintendo (even though I have a PS3 and and Xbox). 25 years ago Microsoft was trying to figure out Windows, Sony was trying to sell a Beta player, and what was Nintendo doing? Making Video games for the masses. That has been their business model since day 1. I like all 3 systems for different reasons, but go cry to your mom, not here. Hurrah for Video Games the top 5 games sold 50 Million Copies!

Justin... What does your comment have to do with the 'Kart' discussion? Oh, you were just cutting the line and thread-jacking so we could more quickly see your fanboi rant? Is anyone here 'crying' like you say? You make up your own situation ("go cry to your mom, not here") and then you try to talk sense into the people you made up.

I hate it when people do that sort of thing.

It was no Mario Kart N64, that's for sure.

But that's not to say it was a bad game - it's just not as good as it's predecessors.

And I thought I read somewhere that one of the best Mario Kart Wii players actually played using the steering wheel, which boggled my mind since I can't play with it for the life of me.

Justin, I don't know what we said that brought on that comment of yours, not do I know how we all just became sony fanboys. Was that directed to another comment or what?

Sorry that I thread jacked, never meant to. I was just responding to "the little plastic wheel that real gamers don't care about. I would consider myself a real gamer. I have been playing video games since I can remember, I just hate it when people make comments because, but thats what makes sites like this so much fun. Have a great day everyone.

Factor in Japan, and i think it pushes Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit over GTA IV's head, though i'm not entirely sure.

Everyone's got different sales figures nowadays, and none of them (except Media Create's Japanese weekly figures) are fully accurate

Although Im not sure about Media Create, all other numbers are innacurate...many don't count 1 or more factors.

Im sure that the only ones that have exact sales figures are the companies themselves, but they never release them, instead they just publicize their shipment to retailers figures to "increase" their sales

I call bullshit on this list, as Wii Play is nowhere to be found.

Brawl is the only game that deserved its sales figures, that and maybe Wii Fit. The rest of that list is terribly uninspiring.

Never tried brawl, but I know the one game I am having fun with is COD5. I know it just another shooter, but in my opinion Treyarch stepped it up this time.

Because standing on a plastic stool and pretending to exercise is sooooo inspiring.

I know you hate some popular games for actual reasons - but seriously, how can you think that Wii Fit deserved to sell 9 mill?

I found Wii Fit to be fun, although far from perfect and missing what I would consider crucial features. All in all, though, I think it's sales are rather well deserved, personally.

you sir...are a wiitard

Wiifit only sold so damn well because all the Lazy fattening slobs thought "Ooh, finally I can exercise and game at the same time, let me go and buy :D".......and very few actually lost any weight ¬_¬ Its like using a fishing rod to hang a carrot infront of the donkey to get it to walk.

My mum says she's going to use it to get fit, she used it once and never again, the people that enjoy Wiifit are already fit >,<

Wii Fit deserved to sell 9 million because of it's brilliance. I mean, Nintendo couldn't have timed it better

Since the cutover to Ultrastiq, the number of commenters that are being voted up to 3 hearts, or down to .5 hearts, has plummeted.

Is this because the algorithm has changed for the number of votes required to move someone up or down? Or is it just people like me, who still keep clicking on the wrong symbol because some genius designer switched around the plus sign and the minus sign?

DING DING DING

Joystiq switched the [+] and [-], and as a result our muscle memories are upvoting trolls and downvoting hilarity.

Solid logic there - I've hit the wrong one three or four times now, so I think I've subconsciously stopped voting. Maybe I need shock treatment to help learn the new system...

I like how vidGuy got voted up for saying that he stopped voting. I guess everyone else wishes they had his willpower?

I only make the same mistake once, I'm just getting used to the new joystiq it's going to take a while.

I blame muscle memory and an increase in readers. I had to reinstall firefox and I changed the order of my bookmarks toolbar and I still find myself going to the wrong link from time to time, also we now have the devoted readers of the Fanboy sister/brother sites that are now able to read every news post. I expect to see a lot more trolling in the new Stiq,

Also I'm afraid with the new Stiq that with the increase of posts from the sister sites bloggers the beloved joystiq bloggers won't get as many posts in.

+1 Anam.

Wait. NOOOOO!

Maybe the vote up was the commentors way of distributing shock treatment? Okay, okay, I'll starting voting ;)

I think I've only made that mistake once.

Interesting that there are no 360 or PS3 exclusives in that top 6.

huh? not really, after all, neither the PS3 or the 360 had a single exclusive that had that much of a mainstream appeal

The only title that would fit such criteria would be Gear 2 but it wasn't released that long ago...hence why it is at a respectable 10th place

The highest ranked exclusive according to the Edge-online list cited in this article was Gears of War 2 at number 10 with ~4 million units sold. The next closest exclusive was Metal Gear Solid 4 at number 18 with ~2.5 million units sold.

@Noshino: I suppose I meant in comparison to the 'wealth' of Wii exclusives in the top 6. Although, I can't think of many examples of excellent games released on all 3 consoles.

Very interesting indeed!

I guess after everything that was said about "people not buying Wii games" and only PS3/360 games sell we can finally put a big fat rusty nail in that coffin.

No MGS4 or other exclusives... It is a bit shocking.

Lee, that isn't the argument...

The actual argument is that people, are not buying 3rd party Wii games, other than minigames that is.

I'm not surprised especially not by the Mario Kart.
With the that many Wii's out there and barely any games.

No surprise the best multi-player games out there are shinning.
I'd wish developers realized that 3 (Kart, GH, & Smash) out of the 6 games on that list support 4 players on the screen at once.

They sold that many because they are good party games and support 4 player split screen (you get what I mean on Smash).

ACH! Beware the shinning!

i like video games.

You're in the wrong place for that. This site is for only for people who *bitch* about video games, not *like* them.

Not the place for you if you play video games.

You must dedicate all your free time to Joystiq from now on.

*Banish*

Surely Guitar Hero's cheating, though.

You can't have "Guitar Hero :All of 'em" in one slot, and then a single Call of Duty/GTA in another...
If you plopped all of the GTA's sold last year (San Andreas downloads in Xbox Originals, for starters), and then all of the Call of Duty's, that ain't gonna be the same list.. So why should Guitar Hero get special treatment?

I think we need to have a category for "Games That Feature Mario: All of Them," and see how big the numbers get, just for fun.

Maybe they decided to give GH special treatment because Neversoft has been whoring the franchise out ever since Harmonix left? Seriously, four GHs in less than three years?

I think it's a little screwed up that they can put all the Guitar Hero sales together. It seems a little unfair and makes it seem that Guitar Hero 3 or World Tour can't stand out alone when they can.

Did they not list Wii Play on purpose? I don't think they mentioned anything in the article about it.

This is only for games that came out in 2008, I believe.

Because it comes with the contriller and shouldn't count at all?

I see the point of only including games that were released in '08, but it seems kind of stupid to not post the actual best selling games of the year. Especially when you're going to arbitrarily decide which games count multiplatform (ie ALL Guitar Hero games as one?) I guess maybe they just didn't want another list to be topped by Wii Play...

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Edge lists top selling games of '08

Reader Comments (73)

Posted: Jan 28th 2009 10:03AM vidguy said

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