Does anyone know where I can get some good sales data on video games? In particular I'm curious about how many copies Doom, Doom 2, Doom 3, and Wolfenstein sold. I stumbled on these by accident: # The top selling 2004 game titles according to the NPD Group: 1. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas ­ 5.5 million sold since launch 2. Halo 2 on X box ­ 4.5 million units sold since launch 3. Madden NFL 2004 on PS 2 ­ 3.5 million units sold since launch 4. ESPN NFL 2K5 ­1.6 million units sold since launch 5. Need for Speed Underground 2 ­1.7 million units since launch # Top selling PC title of 2004: Sims 2 with 750,000 units sold., reported NPD Group at the Advertising In Games Forum I was surprised by how low the numbers are. I can't believe in this day and age, the best computer game can't even sell a million copies in a year. Mike C. http://www.coolgroups.com/zoomer

Quote: Original post by mike74
Does anyone know where I can get some good sales data on video games? In particular I'm curious about how many copies Doom, Doom 2, Doom 3, and Wolfenstein sold.

It will be pretty tough to find actual sales data going back to those early titles. NPD may have historical data they would sell to you but that is the main problem - to get proper data you usually need to pay for it. A list of various data sources can be found at http://obscure.co.uk/directory_market.shtml

Quote: # Top selling PC title of 2004: Sims 2 with 750,000 units sold., reported NPD Group at the Advertising In Games Forum

I was surprised by how low the numbers are. I can't believe in this day and age, the best computer game can't even sell a million copies in a year.

PC games do sell less that consoles however it does depend on what part of the year the games are released in. I seem to recall that most of the decent PC titles in 2004 shipped fairly late.

Quote: I was surprised by how low the numbers are. I can't believe in this day and age, the best computer game can't even sell a million copies in a year.

5 years ago, when I started with my current company (Which sells video games) PC games were a sizeable chunk of the market. In the time that has passed, PC has fallen off the map and there is a good reason why. It comes down to money.

When the PS2 launched, the graphics were not quite on par with the best PC games at the time. When Xbox came out though, it was right up there. GameCube also did this. The problem is that if I want to exceed to graphics of a $300 dollar console, I have to spend that on a video card. Then, I have to play on a monitor that unless I spent a good amount, is at best 17" to 19".

I predict when the next set of consoles hit, you will rarely see any exclusive to PC titles any more. The few you do see will be limited to a few genres. MMORPG and RTS and very few, if any exclusive FPS.

Quote: Original post by vilsin

Quote: I was surprised by how low the numbers are. I can't believe in this day and age, the best computer game can't even sell a million copies in a year.

5 years ago, when I started with my current company (Which sells video games) PC games were a sizeable chunk of the market. In the time that has passed, PC has fallen off the map and there is a good reason why. It comes down to money.

When the PS2 launched, the graphics were not quite on par with the best PC games at the time. When Xbox came out though, it was right up there. GameCube also did this. The problem is that if I want to exceed to graphics of a $300 dollar console, I have to spend that on a video card. Then, I have to play on a monitor that unless I spent a good amount, is at best 17" to 19".

I predict when the next set of consoles hit, you will rarely see any exclusive to PC titles any more. The few you do see will be limited to a few genres. MMORPG and RTS and very few, if any exclusive FPS.

Your reasnoing is flawed, at least for people like me. I'm not arguing the market isn't shrinking, but your reasons are not right.

1) Graphics cards are signifcantly cheaper than a $300 consoles.
2) With the above you *can* play on your TV.
3) Most of the games I play come out for 1 console and PC. I would need to buy 2 consoles to play the games I want to play.

Therefore, if money was the motivating factor for a switch to consoles, your actually costing yourself $100+ more (~$25-50 if you need someone to install that for you and depending on if you have 1 console or more than 1) than if you had a medicore (high 1.Xghz 256-512mb RAM) PC with a decent video card.

I'm not claiming I know a different 'better' reason, but that can't be right unless most people are far more inept than I give them credit.

Then again, almost 2/3rds of the US population doesn't believe in Evolution.

Quote: Your reasnoing is flawed, at least for people like me. I'm not arguing the market isn't shrinking, but your reasons are not right.

You are dead on here because the majority consumer is not like you or I. They are not on message boards looking at this info. By the rest of your post, you probably understand the costs associated with gaming hardware. They don't. In my stores, I get almost an equal amount of returns on PC games as I do sales. Why? The customer says they won't install or run correctly. When I look at the system requirements and ask them what they have on their machine, half don't know. The other half, they know what an OS is, Memory, and proccessor, "but what is a 3D graphics card?"

Sorry Grandma, that Packard-Bell you got from Wal-Mart isn't going to run Doom 3. (Example here, since PB no longer serves Wal-Mart)

And yes, people buy a ton of PCs from Wal-Mart, just like the fact Wal-Mart is the largest retailer of video games. (Soon to be dethroned though.)

The money issue isn't my simple reason. There are more and you nailed it on the head with this one.

Quote: ...unless most people are far more inept than I give them credit.

There is a whole breed of gamers out there. Sit around your local game store for a day and watch the different types that come in. Hell, Tennessee Titans players come in my stores and I've never seen one of them buy a PC game and they have to have a ton of money. Maybe it is ease of use. Maybe after a long day they just want to pop a game in and go.

The simple fact is though, PC games sales growth is not falling in line with industry growth. I see no reason to blame developers either. Console development entails a lot more like Dev kits and payments to the console maker.

So, yes, there are other reasons. The one I hear the most from my customers though are about money.

Quote: Original post by vilsin

Quote: Your reasnoing is flawed, at least for people like me. I'm not arguing the market isn't shrinking, but your reasons are not right.

You are dead on here because the majority consumer is not like you or I. They are not on message boards looking at this info. By the rest of your post, you probably understand the costs associated with gaming hardware. They don't. In my stores, I get almost an equal amount of returns on PC games as I do sales. Why? The customer says they won't install or run correctly. When I look at the system requirements and ask them what they have on their machine, half don't know. The other half, they know what an OS is, Memory, and proccessor, "but what is a 3D graphics card?"

Sorry Grandma, that Packard-Bell you got from Wal-Mart isn't going to run Doom 3. (Example here, since PB no longer serves Wal-Mart)

And yes, people buy a ton of PCs from Wal-Mart, just like the fact Wal-Mart is the largest retailer of video games. (Soon to be dethroned though.)

The money issue isn't my simple reason. There are more and you nailed it on the head with this one.

Quote: ...unless most people are far more inept than I give them credit.

There is a whole breed of gamers out there. Sit around your local game store for a day and watch the different types that come in. Hell, Tennessee Titans players come in my stores and I've never seen one of them buy a PC game and they have to have a ton of money. Maybe it is ease of use. Maybe after a long day they just want to pop a game in and go.

The simple fact is though, PC games sales growth is not falling in line with industry growth. I see no reason to blame developers either. Console development entails a lot more like Dev kits and payments to the console maker.

So, yes, there are other reasons. The one I hear the most from my customers though are about money.

Well, I guess what your saying makes more sense to me now. It wasn't clear at all you were talking about that was a customer's reasoning. At least to me anyway.

I wasn't arguing the point, just the reasons for it. Then again, perhaps the average person simply doesn't have as wide a base of knowledge about computers as I believed.

Thanks for the reply, its nice to know from someone with real world experience goes on. But I don't think I'm going to spend a day at the local GameStop, they probably would think I was crazy and I go there pretty often. Heh.

Volunteer as a technician at protonic to see the vastness of the average computerist's knowledge about computers.

Hi, mike74, I remember finding somewhere on the Internet a few years back a list of the top selling ten games of all time, together with the list from a decade or so ago. Unfortunately, as Obscure says, to get anything other than the top sellers for the week you often need to pay.

By the way, the list was not what you'd expect [grin]. This was back before the Sims worked it's way up to number one outpipping Myst, but the list was very low-tech (this was a year or two after Quake 3 and UT, I think). Only 3D games on the top 10 were Microsoft Flight Simulator and Lego Island, from memory.

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Hi, mike74, I remember finding somewhere on the Internet a few years back a list of the top selling ten games of all time, together with the list from a decade or so ago. Unfortunately, as Obscure says, to get anything other than the top sellers for the week you often need to pay.

By the way, the list was not what you'd expect [grin]. This was back before the Sims worked it's way up to number one outpipping Myst, but the list was very low-tech (this was a year or two after Quake 3 and UT, I think). Only 3D games on the top 10 were Microsoft Flight Simulator and Lego Island, from memory.

Hey, I didn't log out! That's me by the way.

Oh and I found this list of sales figures which may or may not be relevant:
Link to Ownt.com - Game Stats

A sample:

Quote:
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

Quote: Original post by Adraeus
Volunteer as a technician at protonic to see the vastness of the average computerist's knowledge about computers.

I'm already frightened enough, but I'll look into it later. =)