Call Of Duty, Guitar Hero Dominate Top 10 All-Time List
Call of Duty: Black OpsBack in the early '90s, Activision was hardly the dominating video game publisher we know now; in fact, the company filed for bankruptcy.
But nearly 20 years later, things have changed drastically. According to data compiled by the NPD, Activision is responsible for 5 of the top 10 highest grossing games of all time. As a frame of reference, rival Electronic Arts is nowhere to be found on that list, while Nintendo takes four of the last five slots (with Viacom holding the last position). Call of Duty alone takes up three slots and the latest, Black Ops, shows "every sign that it will soon become the best selling game of all time, as judged by gross sales." However, bear in mind that Activision is the leader on this list due to a now-defunct blockbuster series: Guitar Hero. Believe it or not, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock actually sits in the #1 spot with life-to-date sales of $830.9 million.
Just remember that the NPD doesn't take inflation into account, and it doesn't include titles that were shipped bundled with systems. Only standalone titles were evaluated. If we talk bundled titles, Wii Sports would be the clear winner, and Super Mario Bros. on the original NES (over 40 million copies distributed since 1985) would also land on the list. As for inflation adjustment, the standalone winner appears to be Super Mario Bros. 3 with 18 million copies sold on the NES. With a price tag of $50 at the time, and when total sales are converted to today's dollars, that's a whopping $1.7 billion...and nothing else comes close.
But as we said: times have changed.
Tags: games industry, activision, call of duty, guitar hero, game sales
3/25/2011 9:51:46 AM Ben Dutka
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Comments (18 posts)
Deleted User
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 10:19:50 AM
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Good old Mediagenic could have been dead and buried but Bobby Kotick revived it big time...and he'll probably bankrupt it again someday, too, with his policies. Of course, as long as there are sheep and lemmings who don't know any better, they will still thrive.
2 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 10:34:16 AM
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I picked up my fav CoD, MW2, yesterday for $15 (sure of heck beats the $60 Games on Demand price). I just love shooting it out in the shopping plaza next to the Burger King and Taco Bell. Great stuff.
Having done so much KZ3 lately, CoD is DEFINITELY (caps for emphasis =p ) more of an arcade shooter. It's so fast and exaggerated feeling. Not that I don't like that; it's different feeling from slower, less twitchy types. Oftentimes there's whole groups of dudes standing around shooting gallery style while you just drop 'em one by one.
Production value and dramatized moments can be pretty awesome in MW2, too.
Basically, I'm saying I like MW2 and most of what CoD's have to offer. It just happens to have a huge popularity appeal that seems pretty disproportionate considering other quality games that share shelf space with them. If the market fairly responded to CoD's other great competitors, I don't think CoD would be seen as such a hog.
3 up, 2 down
JMO_INDY
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 4:38:37 PM
1 up, 1 down
maxpontiac
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 11:04:27 AM
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I have a feeling it's going to suck as far as variety goes when more and more studios see what COD is doing.
Last edited by maxpontiac on 3/25/2011 11:04:43 AM
1 up, 0 down
CrusaderForever
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 11:18:05 AM
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I don't see CoD slowing down any time soon.
0 up, 1 down
kraygen
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 1:22:33 PM
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Although I think determining this by gross sales is a bit silly. Considering almost everyone who bought guitar hero had to purchase it with guitars and such, it's price being twice that of any other regular video game.
I find these numbers as irrelevant as most NPD numbers, as best selling of all time should be number sold, not money made from, and with the used video game market that has been around for years and years, we'd never actually know how many people actually purchased a game.
2 up, 3 down
JMO_INDY
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 6:00:19 PM
1 up, 1 down
Excelsior1
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 6:36:52 PM
0 up, 2 down
kraygen
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 11:01:33 PM
0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 3:33:54 PM
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1 up, 4 down
shootu
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 @ 12:58:00 AM
1 up, 0 down
Excelsior1
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 3:34:46 PM
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how about a re racoon city is confirmed article that been a headline on the major cites for the past few days? i would love to talk about that. it's from slant six, and is a co-op shooter.
cod games are good at being a face paced, close quarter, run and gun shooter that caters to the twitch audience. they run at 60 fps which help a lot on that type of shooter. they are sub hd with ps3 version always being worse than the 360 version. i don't like that.
Last edited by Excelsior1 on 3/25/2011 3:38:04 PM
0 up, 3 down
Snaaaake
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 7:15:05 PM
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0 up, 0 down
BikerSaint
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 10:52:52 PM
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....but only for itself!
Happy, Bozo, & Homie all give a big thumbs down on Kotex joining their clown union, silly hair or not
1 up, 1 down
___________
Saturday, March 26, 2011 @ 8:28:44 AM
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from antivision in the pits, to the most profitable publisher!
from EA, releasing nothing but crap to the best MP publisher out there!
from ubisoft going from the best MP publisher out there, to 2nd worse only behind antivision!
from sony swimming in money, to hemorrhaging money!
ever since father ken left them its been screw up after screw up and there FY margins are reflecting that.
amazing how much 5 years can change!
1 up, 1 down
Godslim
Reply
Friday, March 25, 2011 @ 10:10:47 AM