GTA IV, Xbox 360 Dominate 2008 Rentals

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)