All Time Top 20 Best Selling Games and More

[John Beaulieu]

Source - Gamestate

"Quick Take" returns, this time we have something worth while that actually has to do with computer games and not computer hardware. This "Quick Take" is taken from the GameState "magazine". I don't know if you can call it a magazine. It's more like a small publication.
The cool thing about this GameState publication is that it's completely free. Not just a free month, but a complete subscription that's free. The first issue I received is 42 pages so that should give you an idea of the size. It has some decent articles in it and is more article based than reviewing games or showing off computer hardware. Head over to their site in order to get your free subscription.

OK, now that we given you that blatant pimp to their site and for their magazine, let's start with the tidbit rips. This time we are "borrowing" some stats of game sales that GameState has so kindly rounded up.

They give the number of users who are subscribed to seven big massive multiplayer online games. Here's the quick stats straight from GameState:

1. "Linage"
Platform: PC
Users: 2.5 Million

2. "Everquest"
Platform: PC/PS2
Users: 400,000+

3. "Dark Age of Camelot"
Platform: PC
Users: 200,000+

4. "Ultima Online"
Platform: PC
Users: 200,000

5. "The Sims Online"
Platform: PC
Users: 100,000+

6. "Final Fantasy XI"
Platform: PC/PS2
Users: 200,000

7. "Asheron's Call"
Platform: PC
Users: Microsoft wont say

GameState reveals further that "Star Wars Galaxies" is looking to whip out the competition. "Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided" is already pushing 400,000 pre-orders. This is pre-orders folks; the game hasn't even gone gold and they have 400,000 geeks all ready to hand over the green. Does anybody else think that "Star Wars Galaxies" is going to be successful?

GameState takes a look at units sold for the 20 best singular examples for certain franchises.

1. "The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time" for N64: 6 Million Units
2. "Halo" for Xbox: 2+ Million Units
3. "Metroid Prime" for GameCube: 1+ Million Units
4. "Super Mario 64" for N64: 11 Million Units
5. "Tetris" for Gameboy: 32 Million Units
6. "Street Fighter Alpha 3" for GBA: 30,000+ Units (This was one the editor liked)
7. "Deus Ex" for PC: 500,000+ Units
8. "Mario Kart Super Circuit" for GBA: 500,000+ Units
9. "Neverwinter Nights" for PC: 1 Million Units
10. "Civilization III" for PC: 2 Million Units
11. "Grand Theft Auto" for PS2: 8.5 Million Units
12. "Metal Gear Solid 2" for PS2: 5 Million Units
13. "Gran Turismo 3" for PS2: 7 Million Units
14. "Half-Life" for PC: 8 Million Units
15. "Tempest 3000" for Nuon: 20,000+ Units
16. "Shenmue II" for Dreamcast: 100,000 Units
17. "Rez" for PS2: 100,000+ Units
18. "Elite" for BBC Micro: 600,000 Units
19. "Radiant Silvergun" for Sega Saturn: 50,000 Units
20. "The Secret of Monkey Island 2" for PC: 500,000 Units

Next, and in closing of this Quick Take, GameState takes a look at the actual top twenty games by sales. These are the individual games that have sold the most units.

1. "Super Mario Bros." for NES: 40 Million Units
2. "Tetris" for Gameboy: 33 Million Units
3. "Super Mario Bros. 3" for NES: 18 Million Units
4. "Super Mario World" for SNES: 17 Million Units
5. "Super Mario Land" for Gameboy: 14 Million Units
6. "Super Mario 64" for N64: 11 Million Units
7. "The Sims" for PC: 10 Million Units
8. "Super Mario Bros. 2" for NES: 10 Million Units
9. "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" for PS2: 8.5 Million Units
10. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for PSX: 8 Million Units
11. "GoldenEye" for N64: 8 Million Units
12. "Donkey Kong Country" for SNES: 8 Million Units
13. "Super Mario Kart" for SNES: 8 Million Units
14. "Pokemon Red/Blue" for Gameboy: 8 Million Units
15. "Half-Life" for PC: 8 Million Units
16. "Tomb Raider II" for PSX: 8 Million Units
17. "Final Fantasy VII" for PSX: 7.8 Million Units
18. "Myst" for PC: 7 Million Units
19. "Gran Turismo 3" for PS2: 7 Million Units
20. "Dragon Warrior VII" for PS2: 6 Million Units

It's surprising to see that Nintendo holds many of the top spots with their Mario franchise. One would think that a company that has gained all that money from sales would be doing better in the current console market.

camps

[Chadruharazzeb]

Interesting list, and especially encouraging if you work for Nintendo!

How did they miss Doom? That passed the 10 million mark by 1996.

[John Beaulieu]

doom was released as shareware

camps

[moosedeer]

can i have a linky for there site please

[John Beaulieu]

http://www.gamestate.net/

[replicant]

only the 1st episode was released as shareware. Doom, and Doom II were commercial packages. Im sure Doom II sold more than Doom did.

There are some titles there that are definately missing, so Im not sure how accurate the list is.

[metal_mutley]

Thanks for the lists camps, here are my wholly feeble observations.

Good to see 20,000 copies of Tempest 3000 have been shifted considering the hardware base; has anyone here played it?

600,000 copies of Elite seems a bit feeble for the best space trading & combat sim.

Oh, and I wonder how these figures compare to the most widely played franchise of them all? Snake.

[rjpageuk]

14. "Pokemon Red/Blue" for Gameboy: 8 Million Units

According to Magic Box Platinum chart Pokemon Red/Blue/Green sold 8 million units in Japan alone, so I doubt the figure of 8 million worldwide is particularly accurate!

[trocadero]

10. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for PSX: 8 Million Units

[dgnr7982]

10. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for PSX: 8 Million Units

Second biggest grossing film of all time (according to imdb) so maybe not that suprising

[Mayhem]

600,000 copies of Elite seems a bit feeble for the best space trading & combat sim.

Yes, but are they only listing BBC Micro sales here? If so, that's an INCREDIBLE amount of shiftage for such a minority machine

[charlesr]

So how come so many people used to buy games? Does only 1/4 of the people that used to play, play now?

[Ish]

600,000 copies of Elite seems a bit feeble for the best space trading & combat sim.

Yes, but are they only listing BBC Micro sales here? If so, that's an INCREDIBLE amount of shiftage for such a minority machine

And even on a bigger selling machine I would have thought that was quite impressive given we're talking early/mid eighties and home computers.

[rjpageuk]

So how come so many people used to buy games? Does only 1/4 of the people that used to play, play now?

There are a lot more games being sold now than ever. It is just there are a lot more games out there.

The new Mario would sell to most of the Nintendo owners, in fact those SMB figures probably include copies packaged with the NES. The NES sold aruond 60 million consoles, and about 40 million of those had SMB!

Now a days you only have to look at the sales of Mario or Zelda to see this is no longer the case, and even when a game does sell well (GTA) it still only sells to a fraction of the owners of the console.

[nips]

1. "Super Mario Bros." for NES: 40 Million Units
2. "Tetris" for Gameboy: 33 Million Units
3. "Super Mario Bros. 3" for NES: 18 Million Units

The gaps between the top 3 are quite... well worrying...

It seems hit and miss... You know. The top game sold over twice as many as the number 3 game... It's certainly like certain games hog all the money!

Were there really 40 million NES owners?