Numbers Game

Did you know there is a problem with game sales? It’s true, and shows up in every system sold vs games for the system. There are some ways of figuring it all out, but not all of them work.

Before I go on, I want you to know I am using the VGChartz website as a basis for this.

To give you an idea, the Nintendo Entertainment System sold around 62 million consoles, but its top selling game was Super Mario Bros at 40 million. The next top selling game is Super Mario  Bros 3 at 18 million. That gap makes no sense, and yet it shows up everywhere.

There is a way to figure out consoles sales with this, you take the best selling game and then double its numbers. So, 18 million doubled is close to 40 million. You can also add the hottest selling pack in with the hottest selling non pack in. So, 18 million plus 40 million is around the same amount as NES systems sold. Not only that, we figured out what the best selling style of game was sold for the old Nintendo system.

Just to make sure, lets check the original XBox to see if it follows the same patterns. If you see its top selling game Halo 2 of 9 million, and double the number you get about 18 million sales. The XBox sold 25 million. So the guess doesn’t work perfectly, but it gets you within the range needed. There wasn’t a pack in game in the same tradition as Super Mario Bros, so we can’t do that math.

If you think this is messed up, wait until you see Sony sales. The Playstations top selling game was Gran Turismo 2 at 11 million. If you think we will get even close to the amount of PS sales you are joking. The system sold 105 million. Check the math if you want, something isn’t right.

Those numbers stay the same with Playstation 2 at 160 million, but its top selling game of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is at 21 million. Even weirder is that the next games on the list are all GTAs. If you watch the numbers the majority of games are in the 1 to 5 million sales ratio. It would take forever to find out how many actually sold since there were over 2000 games for the system. Still, the giant break is one of the weirdest things you can see.

PS3 actually makes sense, and even works with the Xbox 360 numbers. They are both at 80 million systems sold, but their top games are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. They are even near the same amount sold at 12 to 15 million.

The numbers you see are explainable for the modern systems, and no it has nothing to do with theft or resale. If you add the two together you get about 27 million systems sold. That is the same as the games doubling. Literally it looks like they are fighting against each other.

PS3 and Xbox 360 are pretty well known for breaking down, and needing replacements. This is probably the real reason why PSN and Xbox Live are so powerful. You expect the systems to break down, and to sign into your account on a new system. Based on experience either system has a 2 year life span, and then needs to be replaced. The systems released on different dates, but it has been about 8 years or 3-4 system replacements since then. In other words 80 million systems for each system is actually going to about 30 million of the same people over and over again.

There is a problem with the theory since the top selling XBox 360 game is actually Kinect Adventures which came with the Kinect. The add on sold about 21 million. It is doubtful that the add on sold to any new customers, but it makes the theory work a little harder. It does explain the PS 2 and PS sales. PS was around for 12 years, and had three replacements. This equals to about 30 million, and then PS2 just finished being made this year and came out 12 years ago. We can say that it came out, and had 4 replacements leaving it at 40 million. Does this theory really work? No, my Playstation works just fine 15 years later. So, it has to be considered but the exact numbers are needed to be looked at more.

Expect to see me looking into this more since I am seriously wondering what is going on. Oh yeah, the Atari 2600 sold 20 million, and its top selling game was Pac Man at 7 million. Makes you want to tear your hair out.