Rockstar's
Grand Theft Auto IV was the most-rented video game of 2008, according to data from Rentrak and Home Video Essentials.
Activision's
Call of Duty 4 and Microsoft's
Halo 3 round out the year's top three rentals -- it was the Xbox 360 versions of multiplatform
GTA IV and
CoD4 that registered on the list.
In fact, the top five most-rented titles of 2008 were Xbox 360 games, which represented a total seven out of 10 -- the remaining 3 listmakers were Wii titles
Mario Kart Wii,
Smash Bros Brawl, and
Mario Party 8 at 6, 7 and 10 respectively. No PlayStation 3 titles appeared in the top 10.
Website GameDaily
reports on Rentrak stats showing that the Xbox 360 gained a 10.7 percent increase in market share between 2007 and 2008, while consumer spend on Wii game rentals saw a significant increase over the same period, from 7.3 percent to 17.1 percent.
The number of Mature-rated titles in the top ten also increased, from four in 2007 to seven in 2008, despite analyst suggestions that M-rated titles are declining in prevalence and will continue to do so as publishers aim for broader audiences in the coming year.
The full list is as follows:
1.
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar, Xbox 360)
2.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision, Xbox 360)
3.
Halo 3 (Microsoft, Xbox 360)
4.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Ubisoft, Xbox 360)
5.
Army Of Two (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360)
6.
Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii)
7.
Super Smash Bros Brawl (Nintendo, Wii)
8.
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks, Xbox 360)
9.
Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft, Xbox 360)
10.
Mario Party 8 (Nintendo, Wii)
