Nielsen taps most anticipated games, Modern Warfare 3 on top

by Richard Mitchell on Sep 30th 2011 2:30PM

The Nielsen firm has compiled a list of the top twenty most anticipated games this holiday season. The survey ranks games based on the percentage of players that ranked them in their top five choices for the holiday. Unsurprisingly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was at the top of the list, with fully 27 percent of those surveyed placing it in their top five.

Rounding out the top five, Gears of War 3 and Madden NFL 12 both pulled 19 percent, Assassin's Creed Revelations made 17 percent and Batman: Arkham City reached 15 percent. The holiday's major Wii exclusive, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword made the sixth slot with 14 percent. Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3's major competition, reached number seven at 12 percent. Also worth noting: Dead Island, at 7 percent, marks the only game on the entire list that isn't part of an established franchise.

The survey also includes a fascinating peek into the psyche of various players, making note of the online conversations surrounding each title. For example, Modern Warfare 3 fans are looking forward to launch parties, and Skyward Sword devotees are hoping to rekindle that old Ocarina of Time feeling. Madden armchair quarterbacks, meanwhile, are planning to call in sick in order to squeeze in a few more touchdowns.

Source: Nielsen

Tags: assassins-creed-revelations, batman-arkham-city, battlefield-3, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3, dead-island, ds, madden-nfl-12, microsoft, modern-warfare-3, nielsen, nintendo, pc, playstation, ps3, psp, sony, The-Legend-of-Zelda-Skyward-Sword, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (103)

I'm surprised at the lack of Uncharted 3 on this list. That's my most anticipated game for sure.

@NickAVV

Uncharted is on one platform...

@Timjoy So is Gears 3.

And Uncharted 3 is my most anticipated game aswell.

@NickAVV
Look at the link next time. Number 11, 9%

@Timjoy

So is Gears 3.

@Timjoy Gears 3 is on one platform.

@CoconutSkittle
Aaand someone already said that. I'll go sit in the corner now...

@NickAVV

None of Sony's IPs are mega huge, compared to other mega IPs.

@mywhitenoise I did look at the link, but apparently my eyes glazed over that. Carry on!

@Timjoy so is Zelda

@xiLeShadow

i think that's bullshit. i think people that mainly mention xbox titles and multiplatform games are either

A. a Xbox Owner
B. Xbox Fanboy
C. All the above

i am called a sony Fanboy which is far from the truth. i own a 360 and PS3 but most of my gaming is on PS3 but nothing interests me to plug in my 360 again .... and halo and gears i think are over rated ... if i had a choose Halo is the better franchise but i stopped playing at 3 cause i feel the story was done and didn't need to continue everything else was Milked.

i find Uncharted has a much better everything compared to Gears. i just couldn't get interested in the story and didn't care for the characters in gears to make me wanna continue past Chapter 3

@HardBoiled2009

If you aren't a Sony fanboy, you're really not helping your case with this comment.

@HardBoiled2009

Wow I get downvoted for stating the truth?

Resistance 3 has yet to sell half a million copies...
Killzone 3 is barely below 2 Million 3/4 into the year....
Uncharted 2 has sold a bit below 5 million copies to date...
LittleBigPlanet 2 has yet to sell 2 million copies...
Infamous 2 has yet to sell a million copies...

Now lets compare them to the other first parties main line-up;

Gears of War 3 sold 3 Million Copies in one week...
Halo: Reach has sold a little below 9 Million Copies...

Do I have to go into Nintendo as well? We all already know that those sale HUGE if the word Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Super Smash, etc. are on the title.

In comparison, Sony's IPs sell weaker than other the first party publishers. They focus on more games and split their marketing funds, while Nintendo focuses on less games, and Microsoft even less.

This allows them to focus the marketing on a few games instead of a lot of games.

@StormChaser91 Actually technically Zelda is on countless platforms ranging from NES to 3DS to Wii and even on PC(if you download an emulator)
Just sayin'

@xiLeShadow

Funny how you only said two exclusives for 360 and you named two times more exclusives on the PS3.

But you are right, the more copies of a product is clearly the better product. Can you look up the Jonas brothers albums sales compared to any other band that has some talent.

@xiLeShadow

While that's true, I wouldn't say that's great for us as gamers. I don't have a 360, mostly because there's only two IPs on it (the two you mentioned). So while it's great for Microsoft to be able to focus all of their marketing on just a few games, us gamers don't have as much to look forward to (since I don't enjoy multiplayer, once I'm done with a campaign the game doesn't hold my interest for long).

So I concur that none of PS3's franchises are as huge, but I still appreciate the quantity of quality ones.

@madforaday

I'm not even arguing which game is better than the other and its obvious that Sony has more exclusives recently. I even clearly stated that.

My point is that Sony IP's sell less than the other first party publisher.

Stop trying to counter-argue with something I'm not even talking about.

@skrymir01

Thank You for seeing what I was trying to throw across. I like most Sony's games. Pretty good games for what they are.

Just some people have fantoy goggles on and if you say something "bad" about their company, they will start getting on defensive for no reason.

@xiLeShadow

I'd say uncharted 2 and Gran Turismo 5 are pretty big sellers I mean over 5 million is pretty good.

@skrymir01

Ever heard of Forza, Alan Wake, Fable, to name a few?

@NickAVV

Another Uncharted anticipator here :D

*Hand up*

Can't wait for Uncharted 3

@NickAVV

Mine is Binary Domain. It might suck but everything I've seen looks amazing. Can't wait.

@xiLeShadow Because The minority of ps3 owners are sony fanboys and they actually the only ps3 owners who own more than one game.

Face it, a lot of ps3 owners use it primarily as a blu-ray player. that's why sony Ip's sell lesser than Msft ones.

That's what happens when you try to be a jack of all trades, master of none.

@HardBoiled2009

Just because you own a 360 doesn't make you any less of a Sony Fanboy. Especially when you want to knock down the few Xbox exclusives in your comment. There is a lot more to play than Halo/Gears on the Xbox & most of the great games are multi-platform. Every fanboy always goes straight to the Exclusives as ammo & at this point in time it's just opinions on what is better or not.

Considering we all can play tons of great franchises on the Xbox makes it great for any gamer, especially when you can consider that when playing with multiple friends across multiple games is the best when using XBL over PSN.

We can talk all day about Gears of War vs Uncharted, Halo vs Killzone, Forza vs Gran Turismo, and so on and so forth. But when there are great franchises like Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Batman, Battlefield, Rage, Dead Rising, Saints Row, GTA, and the list goes on & on, its hard to just keep focus on only exclusives.

I feel like the only person on earth not buying this game, Its like a real bad zombie flick (also the only person without bookface)

@Vampettrelli
I'm referring to MW3 btw.
The real funny thing is, im actually good at COD games, since W@W i can hit a 2.0 k/d on most COD games, i think it could be the reason im not the most fond of the series.

@Vampettrelli

You are a unique and beautiful snowflake.

@A Sandwich All snowflakes are unique.

Trolololololol

@Vampettrelli YOU ARE NOT ALONE

@Vampettrelli

Not like it's hard though.

Although that could very well be why. :P

@RageOverdose
yeah thats what i mean the game isnt hard at all, thats why i always end up playing zombies, its like the game dnt ever get harder, just more annoying

Modern Warfare expansion pack, great!

The three games im looking foward to are Rage, Skyrim and Uncharted 3, There are others but those are the ones im most exited for.

They all look great. Arkham City, Skyward Sword, and Battlefield 3 are the standouts for me though.

Uncharted 3 Batman Skyrim Zelda and Rage for me please. Very interested to see how the battlefield vs call of duty fight goes.

Young generation doesn't know their elder scrolls.

@geniuswithagun Amen to that!

@geniuswithagun Skyrim is my #1 most anticipated games by 99%, the other 1% is filled with all the other games, can't believe it took so long for someone to mention it

@geniuswithagun problem is all the fps fanboys. Yes fps not just cod even though I just don't understand why it does so good when it's just yet another fps. But I digress Skyrim and Forza 4 are the ones I'm waiting on. I have a feeling skyrim can very easily fill up a couple hundred hours of play time if not more lol

Never would have known.....The video game market sure works in mysterious ways.

/s

Dark Souls, Uncharted, and Zelda are all that matter to me.

Uncharted 3 for me. I played BF3 beta on PS3 and the first time I started the game, it threw me in the middle of a battle asking me to choose a role and a squad. It felt a bit harsh for newcomers of this serious like me and all I could hear was some kids screaming over some cheap microphone.

@jwan830 You expected more from a Multiplayer stress test?

@Lennoko

I think he expected more from a BETA.

I feel this list is abit biased. I'm no expert, but how can a game on a single platform be more anticipated than a game on three. Its not just some random game either its battlefield were talking about. I know people that don't normally buy fps games that are going to buy it. Also how can a game be anticipated if its already out. That doesn't make sense. This list is filled with games that have already been released. This list is moot.

uncharted 3 is on the list. right about mario and soic at the olympics.

@SpikeJX people sure r quick to downvote when they don't read. Not trying to say uncharted is just better than Mario and sonic. Im saying there is a link to this list and Uncharted3 is on the list and it is exactly one number aboved Mario and sonic at the Olympics. I just chalk it up two stupidity tho.

Dovahkiin is not amused

Uncharted 3 Batman: Arkham City Battlefield 3 are what i am highly interested in if you wanna count what's coming next year as well then include Twisted Metal

Where's Skyrim???? Also, I'm a cod owner, I hate it at this point its the same game over and over. I've been planning on jumping to battlefield3 since it was announced but i am utterly disappointed by the beta I played yesterday. Not a fanboy but this beta does suck, even without glitches. Be honest. Bad company 2 was more enjoyable and so was 1942.
But yeah.... Skyrim most anticipated for me

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Nielsen taps most anticipated games, Modern Warfare 3 on top

Reader Comments (103)

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:32PM NickAVV said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:35PM Timjoy said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:40PM Connell said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:41PM mywhitenoise said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:42PM CoconutSkittle said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:42PM The Boss said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:43PM CoconutSkittle said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:44PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:49PM NickAVV said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:54PM StormChaser91 said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:55PM HardBoiled2009 said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:08PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:21PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:27PM ChainSmoker said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:37PM madforaday said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:42PM skrymir01 said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:43PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:46PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 4:13PM eat it said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 4:17PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 5:43PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 5:57PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Oct 1st 2011 2:34PM StarcasM said

Posted: Oct 1st 2011 5:15PM CollapseTheControl said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:35PM Vampettrelli said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:37PM Vampettrelli said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:50PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:22PM MW49350 said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 6:32PM Dooliss said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 7:32PM RageOverdose said

Posted: Oct 1st 2011 3:02AM Vampettrelli said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:36PM Friv0lous said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:37PM Kibbles XIII said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:38PM CoconutSkittle said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:39PM dtrain1183 said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:40PM geniuswithagun said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:11PM JCat said

Posted: Oct 1st 2011 3:45PM TheBurbin said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2011 5:00PM Xei said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:42PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:44PM mywhitenoise said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:45PM jwan830 said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:15PM Lennoko said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 8:29PM Brian Griffin said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:46PM SpikeJX said

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Posted: Oct 1st 2011 6:39AM SpikeJX said

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Posted: Sep 30th 2011 2:58PM HardBoiled2009 said

Posted: Sep 30th 2011 3:09PM joer22784 said

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