With access to exclusive NPD data, Gamasutra runs down the Xbox 360's Top 5 best-selling games in the U.S. thus far in 2008, which shares a lot of the same titles as the PlayStation 3's Top 5 and is, predictably, dominated by first- and third-person shoot
September 24, 2008
Author: by Staff
Each month, the NPD Group releases a limited set of video game sales data for the U.S. industry, including a closely watched list of the top 10-selling software titles. But with dozens of games released each month across no fewer than six console and handheld platforms, there aren't enough data points to see how games are selling on each platform for the entire year. However, in coordination with the NPD Group, Gamasutra presents exclusive data on the top 5 titles for each of the current-generation consoles. The Xbox 360's top 5 software are as follows: 
Our author Matt Matthews' analysis of the NPD sales results is as follows: "If there was any doubt that the Xbox 360 is the home of first- and third-person shooters, let this top five list put that question to rest. Four of the top five games this year on the Xbox 360 involve guns and explosions and lots of online mayhem. Moreover, they are all third-party titles: Take-Two, Activision, Ubisoft, EA, and UbiSoft. After examining the PS3 top five, seeing Grand Theft Auto IV at the top of the Xbox 360 list is again no surprise. According to NPD Group figures, GTA4 has sold 4.8 million copies across both the Xbox 360 and PS3. We estimate that the Xbox 360 version should account for around two-thirds of that total, or just under 3 million units, although neither NPD nor Microsoft have released specific figures. Moreover, the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty 4 was in the top 10 from January through April and we know it was above 100,000 units in May. That puts it somewhere higher than 1.2 million copies for the year. In August the Xbox 360 version of Madden NFL 09 was right at 1 million units, although some of those were the 20th Anniversary Edition which wasn't counted in the NPD data used for this ranking. We don't have definitive data on the last two titles, but it is quite likely that Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is between 900,000 and 1 million units while Army of Two is around the 800,000 to 900,000 mark." You can read the full feature, which also includes an analysis of the top 5 selling games for PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from other websites).
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