Top 20 Console Games 2003

Games
1

TOP 20 VIDEO GAME TITLES

RANKED BY TOTAL U.S. UNITS ANNUAL 2003
RANK TITLE PLATFORM PUBLISHER DATE PRICE (AVERAGE RELEASE RETAIL)
1 MADDEN NFL 2004 PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS AUG’03 $49
2 POKEMON RUBY GBA NINTENDO OF AMERICA MAR’03 $31
3 POKEMON SAPPHIRE GBA NINTENDO OF AMERICA MAR’03 $31
4 NEED SPEED: UNDERGROUND PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS NOV’03 $49
5 ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER GCN NINTENDO OF AMERICA MAR’03 $47
6 GRAND THEFT AUTO:VICE CITY PS2 ROCKSTAR GAMES OCT’02 $41
7 MARIO KART: DOUBLE DASH GCN NINTENDO OF AMERICA NOV’03 $49
8 TONY HAWK UNDERGROUND PS2 ACTIVISION OCT’03 $47
9 ENTER THE MATRIX PS2 ATARI MAY’03 $46
10 MEDAL HONOR RISING PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS NOV’03 $49
11 NCAA FOOTBALL 2004 PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS JUL’03 $49
12 HALO XBX MICROSOFT NOV’01 $38
13 TRUE CRIME:STREETS LA PS2 ACTIVISION NOV’03 $48
14 FINAL FANTASY X-2 PS2 SQUARE ENIX USA NOV’03 $50
15 NBA LIVE 2004 PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS OCT’03 $49
16 SOCOM II: NAVY SEALS PS2 SONY COMPUTER ENT. NOV’03 $49
17 GRAND THEFT AUTO 3 PS2 ROCKSTAR GAMES OCT’01 $21
18 NBA STREET VOL 2 PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS APR’03 $48
19 THE GETAWAY PS2 SONY COMPUTER ENT. (SONY) JAN’03 $40
20 MARIO BROS 3: MARIO 4 GBA NINTENDO OF AMERICA OCT’03 $29

2

Wow–I hadn’t realized that NFS Underground had done that well. Impressive.

3

Yeah, it sold something like 1.1 million copies in December alone.

4

NFS: Underground was an enormous hit for EA. Apparently they really didn’t expect it either since the next NFS game is going back to the driving on the open road roots of the earliest games and not plumbing the Underground niche with an immediate sequel.

The Getaway is the biggest surprise of the list IMO. Well, that and all the morons that buy NBA Live over Sega’s way better basketball offering…

–Dave

5

That list is just more proof that my gaming tastes are way outside the American mainstream. I bought a PS2, a GameCube, and a GBA last year, along with a total of 57 games (if I’m counting my daughter’s GBA collection correctly) for those systems. A little over half of those games were older titles I had to buy used, but still only three of the games I bought are on that top 20 list (Double Dash, Tony Hawk, and NBA Street Vol. 2).

Well, I’m off to play some DDR Max 2, or maybe some Toadstool Tour, or a little Wario Ware. :D

6

I’m a little suprised Vice City wasn’t higher on that list. I know it came out in October '02, but it got outsold by Need for Speed Underground which only had two months of sales.

One thing that list tells me is that Halo 2 is going to sell in huge numbers if Halo is still selling so well. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the best-selling game of '04.

With SOCOM II selling so well I’d love to see sales figures for the Sony Online adapter vs. Xbox Live sales figures. I wonder how close they are?

7

Microsoft claims they have 750k Live subscriptions sold:

Xbox Live, launched in November 2002, has nearly 750,000 subscribers, Microsoft said. As opposed to leading competitor Sony Corp. <6758.T>, which sells hardware for online play on its PlayStation 2 but leaves operations and billing to individual publishers, Microsoft handles all of the Xbox Live servers and subscription access.

Bach said the 750,000 figure did not include people who got a two-month free trial for Xbox Live over the holiday season with the purchase of select games. Converting those trial subscribers, he said, was a priority in the early part of this year.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2004/01/22/rtr1223643.html

Sony claims 2.4 million:

Creating a unique opportunity for content providers and third party publishers, the PlayStation 2 online community grew to more than 2.4 million connected consoles in North America. The first online console community is also the most popular, with the PlayStation 2 online base growing nearly three times as fast as that of Microsoft’s Xbox Live. As the online community grows in popularity, demand for online titles are hitting an all-time high, as seven of the top 10 PlayStation 2 software titles in December were online enabled, according to NPD Funworld. PlayStation 2 online devotees purchased first party titles such as SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs and third party online titles including Need for Speed Underground and Medal of Honor Rising Sun from Electronic Arts.
http://sony.gamerfeed.com/gf/pr/5183/

8

Sony has 2.4M online PS2 users? Man, that’s a lot more than I would have thought.

9

My local Gamestop had a small whiteboard where they were keeping track of the Halo 2 pre-orders/reserves. It was at like 150. Be interesting to see how many the game has as a whole so far.

10

Looks like this Madden franchise is about to take off.

Just goes to show you, anything with Snoop D-O to the double-G attached to it is giz-olden.

I hear Culdecept was at #21.

A game comprised completely of cutscenes and a one button battle-system could have Final Fantasy slapped on it and sell millions.

Isn’t this just last year’s list with a II, 3, or 2004 added to the titles?

That’s all I’ve got.

11

Wow, the only xbox title on there is a 2.5 year old launch title? That is the biggest surprise to me.

12

It hit the Fast and the Furious market dead on. People on car forums were talking about this game for months. Some bought PS2s specifically to play it, but won’t pick up Gran Turismo 3. =/

13

Is that 2.4 million long term accounts or just 2.4 million people that connected to an online Sony game at least once?

14

It’ll be the latter, since the latter is always a much more impressive number.

15

Probably combined sales of the network adapter and the online pack. There are probably a decent number of them who got the online pack and haven’t even used it yet.

16

it’s the number of network adaptater and online enabled PS2 bundles sold. Exept Socom and EA sports, PS2 online is a wasteland.

17

Is that 750k Live Subscriptions sold, or 750k people who have actually connected to a Microsoft online game through Live at least once?

:wink:

18

Just making a distinction between someone that buys an online service and someone that has a network adapter for their PS2 and hops on to try Madden.

19

Well, those numbers are only for 2003 sales, which don’t include the mad rush everyone was in to buy VC prior to christmas. Anyone have VC’s first two month sales numbers?

I suspect that NFSU will follow the same curve that GTAVC did, in that it sold a hell of a lot in its first couple of months at the end of the year, then slow but steady in the next year.

20

Don’t forget EverQuest Online Adventures on the PS2. That’s done ok.

While Xbox Live is clearly the best online service for consoles, I still don’t see many Live-enabled games generating a lot of buzz and excitement. You guys that have Xbox Live – are there any games you played online two months ago that you still play online with any frequency today?