Gold, Platinum and Diamond Games
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
What if there were a system for certifying game sales like the ones used in the record industry – Gold, Platinum and Diamond games?
Let's suppose there is such a system, and unlike record sales it is based on global aggregate sales, not just regional sales. There's not much of a pattern in the recording sales certifications, which have typical ratios ranging between 1:2:3 and 1:2:20, depending on the size of the territory involved, so let's define the boundaries of our pseudo-certifications on a 1:2:4 pattern, as follows:
Gold Games sell 5,000,000 units globally
Platinum Games sell 10,000,000 units globally
Diamond Games sell 20,000,000 units globally
Which titles have enjoyed these degrees of success, and can we begin to venture why?
What follows is breakdown of games that clear these boundaries (based principally on the figures provided in the Wikipedia and at Vgchartz, which admittedly may not be wholly accurate). Game SKUs which are substantially the same are considered as identical for the purposes of calculating sales in this list, including when versions on two different consoles contain minor variations or have a slightly different title. This is absolutely not an attempt to suggest that sales are the only way of assessing the value of a videogame – the few artistically interesting videogames did not sell very well, unsurprisingly. The focus here is on a sober examination of the market economics of blockbuster videogames.
Gold Games (43 titles)
Final Fantasy VII
(Playstation) – 9.8
million
Gran Turismo 2
(Playstation) – 9.37
million
Half-Life
(PC) – 9.3 million
Grand Theft Auto: Vice
City (PS2) – 9.21 million
Mario Kart 64
(N64) – 8.47 million
Halo 2 (Xbox) – 8.46
million
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
(Wii) – 8.43 million
Halo 3 (Xbox 360) –
8.1 million
Super Mario Galaxy
(Wii) – 8.02 million
Donkey Kong Country
(SNES) – 8 million
GoldenEye 007
(N64) – 8 million
Super Mario Kart
(SNES) – 8 million
Tomb Raider II (Playstation)
– 8 million
The Legend of Zelda:
Ocarina of Time (N64) – 7.6
million
Grand Theft Auto III
(PS2) – 7.509 million
Super Mario 64 DS (DS)
– 7.5 million
Super Smash Bros.
Melee(GameCube) – 7.09 million
Metal Gear Solid
(Playstation) – 7
million
Metal Gear Solid 2:
Sons of Liberty (PS2) – 7
million
Pac-Man (Atari 2600) – 7 million
Tomb Raider
(Playstation) – 7
million
Crash Bandicoot
(Playstation) – 6.8
million
Mario Party 8
(Wii) – 6.72 million
Final Fantasy X
(PS2) – 6.6 million
The Legend of Zelda
(NES) – 6.51 million
Half-Life 2
(PC) – 6.5 million
Street Fighter II: The
World Warrior (SNES) – 6.3
million
The Legend of Zelda:
Link's Awakening (GameBoy) –
6.05 million
Final Fantasy VIII
(Playstation) – 6
million
Guild Wars
(PC) – 6 million
Myst
(PC) – 6 million
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
(Megadrive/Genesis) – 6 million
Mario Party DS (DS) –
5.85 million
Crash Bandicoot 3:
Warped (Playstation) – 5.7
million
The Sims 2: Pets
(PC) – 5.6 million
Super Mario Sunshine!
(GameCube) – 5.5 million
Final Fantasy IX
(Playstation) – 5.30million
Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
– 5.2 million
Big Brain Academy (DS)
– 5.01 million
Doom
(PC) – 5 million
Gears of War (Xbox
360) – 5 million*
Gears of War 2
(Xbox 360) – 5 million
Halo: Combat Evolved
(Xbox) – 5 million*
Platinum Games (25 titles)
Brain Age: Train Your
Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS) –
18.73 million
Super Mario Bros. 3
(NES) – 18 million
Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire
& Emerald (GBA) – 19.32
million
Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas (PS2) – 17.33
Mario Kart DS (DS)
- 16.09 million
The Sims (PC)
– 16 million
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS3/Xbox 360/Wii/PS2) – 15.32 million[+][Jseakle]
Pokémon Gold and
Silver (GameBoy) – 15.2
million
Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare 2 (PS3/Xbox 360) –
14.9 million**
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
(PS2) – 14.89 million
Super Mario Land
(GameBoy) – 14 million
Brain Age 2: More
Training in Minutes a Day! (DS)
- 13.71 million
Grand Theft Auto 4
(PS3/Xbox 360) – 13 million
Call of Duty 4: Modern
Warfare (PS3/Xbox 360) – 13
million
The Sims 2
(PC) – 13 million
Wii Sports Resport
(Wii) – 12.33 million
Pokémon FireRed and
LeafGreen (GBA) – 11.82
million
World of Warcraft
(PC) – 11.5 million***
StarCraft (PC)
– 11 million
Super Mario 64 (N64)
– 11 million*
Super Mario Land 2: 6
Golden Coins (GameBoy) – 11
million
Gran Turismo
(Playstation) – 10.85 million
Animal Crossing: Wild
World (DS) - 10.79 million
Gran Turismo 4
(PS2) – 10.76 million
New Super Mario Bros.
Wii (Wii) – 10.19 million**
Super Mario Bros. 2
(NES) – 10 million
Diamond Games (11 titles)
Wii Sports
(Wii) – 50.54 million*
Super Mario Bros.
(NES) – 40.23 million*
Tetris
(GameBoy) – 35 million*
Pokémon Red, Blue,
Green & Yellow (GameBoy) -
29.54 million
Wii Play (Wii)
– 24.43 million
Pokémon Diamond, Pearl
& Platinum (DS) – 23.2
million
Wii Fit
(Wii) – 22.5 million
Nintendogs (DS) –
22.27 million
New Super Mario Bros.
(DS) – 20.89 million
Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
– 20.48 million
Super Mario World
(SNES) – 20 million*
*sales include units
bundled with hardware.
**sales still growing
rapidly.
***revenue generated
exceeds units sold (because of subscription fees)
[+] title added after the post was originally written, name of addendum provider is given
Please note that titles marked + are not included in the percentage or title calculations that follows.
Commentary
Of the 43 Gold Games listed above, Nintendo scoop up 16 titles on their platforms (37.2%), Sony gets 14 (32.5%), the PC gets 6 (14%), Microsoft gets 5 (11.6%), while Atari and Sega pick up one each. This is a relatively even distribution, given Microsoft's late arrival on the scene, but notice that there isn't a single PS3 title in this list: not one platform-exclusive PS3 title has cleared 5 million units.
Of
the 25 Platinum Games listed above, Nintendo scoop up 14 (56%), the PC
gets 4 (16%) split between EA's Sims
brand and Blizzard titles, Sony also gets 4 (16%) and there are three
titles which are cross-platform. The only Microsoft games in this
bracket are the cross-platform titles (as are the only PS3 titles in
this list). Nintendo make up over half of this list.
Finally, of the 11 Diamond Games listed above, Nintendo scoop up all 11 (100%)! Nintendo are the only company to have made games that have sold more than 20 million units, and an astonishing 7 of these titles (63.6%) were released in the last four years!
To say that Nintendo are currently dominating the videogame marketplace is an understatement, although this is not to deny that there are other companies doing well on specific titles. Activision-Blizzard's World of Warcraft must be generating a truly incredible volume of revenue, and they also own the Modern Warfare titles which are selling great guns. Take-Two Interactive have the Grand Theft Auto games at least, without which they would be wholly irrelevant to the current market for videogames. Everyone else – including Microsoft and Sony – may be making ends meet, but they are falling short of the bar when it comes to impressive sales. Sony in particular have experienced a terrible slide in sales volume since the glory days of the PS2, and if it were not for GTAIV and the Modern Warfares there would not be a single PS3 title which had sold more than 5 million units.
What else can be discerned from these certifications? If we look at the narrative genres represented (rather than the game genres), we can see an interesting trend in respect of science fiction. Among the Gold games there are 10 games (23.3%) that are clearly science fiction, (plus various Final Fantasy games with science fiction elements). At Platinum there is only one game, StarCraft – and it would only have been Gold if it were not for its recent phenomenal success in South Korea, something no game is likely to repeat. At Diamond, science fiction is gone entirely. (You could make a case for Pokémon as science fiction, I suppose, but it feels like a stretch).
Does this mean that science fiction isn't a profitable narrative genre to pursue in games? Certainly not. Gamer hobbyists (and videogame employees, who are also almost universally gamer hobbyists) love fantasy and science fiction, and provided you aren't trying to make a mega-title it may even be sensible to make use of it, as it can increase interest in the (smaller but more dedicated) gamer audience. In fact, there may have been a few months in 2008 when the Halo franchise managed to be the top console FPS franchise in gaming history, knocking Goldeneye 007 off its perch a decade after the fact. However, Modern Warfare has now returned the FPS crown to military-action, and in this case outselling Half-Life too, which was the previous FPS king when PC sales are taken into consideration. (Did Counter-Strike help Valve accrue sales? I'm uncertain). I'm doubtful a science fiction title will hold this crown again, but confident someone will manage to prove me wrong.
Fantasy fares better, especially if one considers Pokémon to be fantasy. But really the narrative genres of the top selling games might be best considered to be cartoon – a mass market friendly representation, since it appeals to the young and does not significantly put off anyone except, ironically, a proportion of the gamer hobbyists. The strength of the Mario brand may be able to overcome a gamer hobbyist's dislike of the cartoon style, but most companies don't have an equivalent option. This perhaps is why Mario-branded games enjoy such domination of the list – 6 Gold (14%), 7 Platinum (28%), 4 Diamond (36.4%) – about one in five titles listed, overall. If Sony or Microsoft wanted to compete against Mario directly, their options would be limited, perhaps non-existent, although this doesn't really explain why they don't even make the attempt. Serious amounts of money are being left on the table by the under-competition in the platform game market.
Finally, take notice of the poor showing of ultra-violence in these lists. In this regard, I don't mean gun violence of the kind in GTA and Modern Warfare, but rather vicious brutality of the kind certified as "Blood and Gore" by the ESRB. It's something the videogames industry is often associated with, but commercially this kind of depiction is relatively marginal. The Gears of War games squeak into Gold, but only just. (In fact, the sales figures for these games almost exactly matches the sales prediction I made at MIGS 2006). Little else is even remotely close to using gore as part of its representation (Doom, I suppose), and the most successful fighting games have been Super Smash Bros. titles, with absolutely no blood and guts on show.
In fact, the majority of successful ultra-violent games peak at about 3 million units – despite being released when the PS2 had a giant 100 million+ installed base, God of War barely cleared 3 million units, and is widely considered to be the "title to beat" in this space. It's a profitable niche market, at least in the short term, but with average development costs on consoles now typically exceeding $25 million, the break point for these titles is conceivably very close to their likely maximum sales. It's not clear why anyone would want to bankroll in this space apart from the fact that it's low ceiling for sales is compensated somewhat by no obvious dominating brand – multiple titles can compete in the same small market space, to some degree.
Why is so much marketing effort focussed on ultra-violence, then? Why does Sony consider God of War to be such an important brand if it only sells a smidgen over 3 million at most? Why did Microsoft spend a full quarter of their presentation at GDC 2008 showing off the myriad ways to decapitate and brutalise in Ninja Gaiden II when the title only sold a little over a million units? In short, why perpetuate the connection between ultra-violence and videogames at all if it isn't that profitable to do so? Among the gamer hobbyists, ultra-violent titles enjoy an inflated sense of importance that could perhaps be used in an attempt to justify the battle for control of such a marginal market, but I question the wisdom of doing so in high-profile publicity. For closely competing platform holders like Sony and Microsoft who are desperately trying to reach out to that oh-so-profitable mass market Nintendo have cornered, it makes poor commercial sense to simultaneously spend big money associating their console brands with games that are highly off-putting to that very audience.
To court the mass market is to pursue an audience of both men and women – every single Diamond game has cross-gender appeal to a significant degree. It may be the case that women gamer hobbyists are not put off by ultra-violence, but images of gore and savagery are counter-productive when one is shooting for the mass market; depictions of women being brutalised doubly so. Associating your console brand publicly with this games of this kind risks hurting your ability to sell to a wider audience, and I question the marketing logic in making such titles central to brand strategies. The only explanation I can offer as to the excessive focus paid to the ultra-violence niche market would be to point to my earlier remarks about testosterone and videogames. I welcome feedback from anyone (especially marketing execs) who can give me a coherent reason for the apparently ill-considered strategy of associating one's console brand with ultra-violent games when one's hope is to be able to compete with Nintendo in the currently one-sided battle for a market where sales volumes can be up to ten times greater.
Think I missed
something from the list above? Feel free to post addenda in
the comments, and if they check out I will update accordingly.
Please, no objections to the inclusions of bundled sales: a bundled unit is still a unit sold. However, comments concerning bundled games not currently marked as such are most welcome.
Discussion on why various titles managed to achieve blockbuster status is entirely welcome!
Online sales of games through direct download services like Steam and Impulse are likely to distort the results somewhat.
Their sales aren't usually counted in sales charts (because Valve et al don't see a reason to release them).
I imagine the best-sellers on online shops to be those that are likely to appeal to the hard-core.
Although whether it would push any series from gold -> platinum or platinum -> diamond I don't know.
It also makes the whole "PC gaming is dying" claim hard to back up - because we just don't know how sales of PC games are going unless the developer/publisher releases numbers.
Posted by: RodeoClown | Thursday, 21 January 2010 at 01:08
RodeoClown: this is a fair commentary, and I did wonder about it. But the flipside is: if Steam games had cleared significantly high volumes of sales, it would be in Valve's interest to publicise this. This makes me suspect that the effect, while non-trivial, is not going to greatly skew what I present here.
Thanks for the comment!
Posted by: Chris | Thursday, 21 January 2010 at 10:44
"However, comments concerning bundled games not currently marked as such are most welcome."
Does this include Wii Play, which isn't bundled with the actual console but rather with the WiiMote? The price difference between just a WiiMote and the bundle is about 7 euro, turning it into a "why not?" thing even if you're only after the controller. The "Financial Results Briefing for Six-Month Period Ending September 2009" from Nintendo explicitly shows the title as "Wii Play (Wii Remote bundled)" on page 6.
The briefing is available here: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2009/091030e.pdf#page=6
Posted by: Johan | Thursday, 21 January 2010 at 11:39
Why isn't Guitar Hero III on the list of Gold games? Wikipedia reports it as having sold 8 million copies, referencing this article: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN1245149420080713
Posted by: Jseakle | Thursday, 21 January 2010 at 20:44
"Please, no objections to the inclusions of bundled sales: a bundled unit is still a unit sold."
What? How is it the same? I thought the purpose of this was to see what makes certain titles successful. Being bundled kind of throws a wrench in that because sales aren't due to the actual game anymore. When I bought a Wii I also got Wii Sports with it even though I didn't want it. It's not like I had a choice.
It's like if I bought a house and it came with a free kick in the nuts. Does that mean kicks in the nuts are a wild commercial success? No.
I'm kidding. Wii Sports isn't that bad. Let's try that again. It's like if I bought a house and it came with a free mousepad. Yeah that's better.
Then again, something tells me it still probably would've hit diamond status anyway. Sigh.
"a mass market friendly representation, since it appeals to the young and does not significantly put off anyone except, ironically, a proportion of the gamer hobbyists."
I think we can all agree anyone put off by this isn't a true gamer :D
"and the most successful fighting games have been Super Smash Bros. titles, with absolutely no blood and guts on show."
I think the success of Smash Bros (apart from all that star power) is the fact that it's so much NOT like a fighting game. Fighting games are in general a very niche genre. They usually have a steep learning curve, require very large amounts of time investment before you can even begin to SORT of play, and (with the exception of high level play) usually results in the lesser player feeling frustrated/angry/sad/depressed.
Smash appeals to people who don't like fighting games (i.e: most people). It requires no skill to play (note that I say play and not "be good") and have a good time with it. It has 4 player multiplayer, which means even if you lose, you won't feel too bad because you're just one out of many. Plus, if you're the worst one of the bunch, it's likely that the other players will target you less, so you still get to do some things as opposed to a more traditional fighter where you'll just get creamed over and over.
Smash is a resounding failure as a fighting game, but a success as a money maker.
"Among the gamer hobbyists, ultra-violent titles enjoy an inflated sense of importance that could perhaps be used in an attempt to justify the battle for control of such a marginal market, but I question the wisdom of doing so in high-profile publicity."
I wonder about this. I would argue that anyone who gives any sort of importance to ultra-violence isn't a true gamer. So maybe we should change "gamer hobbyists" to, I dunno, "13 year old xbox live mic abusing mouth breathers"?
So why did Microsoft spend so much time showing all the ways to decapitate and brutalize in Ninja Gaiden II? The only explanation I can think of is because they are not gamers. They have not (really) played the game, they don't understand what it's about. They look at it from an outside perspective and, colored by the popular connection between videogames and ultra-violence, they ask themselves "Why do people like this game?" and what they come up with is "because you can chop heads off and spray blood everywhere!"
Then again, maybe I'm wrong and people actually DO play Ninja Gaiden because you chop heads off and spray blood everywhere. In which case I quit humanity. Again.
Posted by: Sirc | Friday, 22 January 2010 at 01:56
Chris Kohler made an interesting point on this in http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/01/npd-analysis-how-to-sell-a-wii-game/ - basically, Nintendo generally doesn't release sequels on a given console, and they combine this with getting things right in that single iteration. So this means that their games are much more likely to be evergreen than those of companies that release new iterations every year.
Posted by: David Carlton | Monday, 25 January 2010 at 05:51
Johan: I agree, Wii Play represents a genuine skewing effect. During the early days of the Wii, buying Wii Play was the only way to get a Wii Remote, and so many gamers who absolutely would not have wanted the title otherwise bought it. But this is 'the exception that proves the rule'. ;)
Jseakle: Thanks for this! I don't know how I missed this. I am seeing figures of 15.32 million (including PS2) which is phenomenal! This isn't just a Gold game, it's Platinum! That makes it far and away the most successful rhythm-action game of all time. I've updated the text, and credited you.
Sirc: Clearly declarative sentences excluding certain topics for discussion don't work on you... perhaps you can get your software updated? ;)
The key point for me, in brief and in the express hope of *not* provoking further discussion, is that if Sony or Microsoft had titles that they expected would sell as well as Nintendo's bundled titles do, they would bundle. Because they often don't have such titles, they don't bundle. Bundled games - Wii Play excluded - sell hardware *as well as* software - that arguably makes them *more* successful, not less. :)
"I think we can all agree anyone put off by this isn't a true gamer :D"
I think we can agree that a true gamer has no life. :p
"I think the success of Smash Bros (apart from all that star power) is the fact that it's so much NOT like a fighting game."
Thanks for your account here - this is a very interesting take on the issue.
"Then again, maybe I'm wrong and people actually DO play Ninja Gaiden because you chop heads off and spray blood everywhere. In which case I quit humanity. Again."
I'll post a "human wanted" sign on your behalf. ;)
David Carlton: thanks for the link here - an interesting perspective on the issue.
Posted by: Chris | Tuesday, 26 January 2010 at 11:56
Is it useful to classify games in such a way? Given the current development environment, pure sales numbers aren't necessarily a good indication of how successful a game is. A game with a modest budget that sells a couple hundred thousand copies is much more likely to be profitable than a AAA title that costs millions of dollars to produce and only sells a few million copies.
Posted by: Walker | Friday, 29 January 2010 at 17:35
Walker: I accept this criticism. But unlike movies, videogames do not declare their development budgets. (I wish they did!) In the absence of the ability to make proper ROI claims, I think it is interesting to look at it from the perspective of sales (as here).
It may not be the most complete perspective, but I feel it can still be a useful one. :)
Posted by: Chris | Saturday, 30 January 2010 at 10:19
Has not WoW sold a good lot more boxes than they have active paying users? Or perhaps expansions are no longer considered to contain the WoW product...
Posted by: Oskar Åsbrink | Monday, 15 February 2010 at 13:14
Oskar: it's a fair question, and something I've wondered myself. You'd *think* there'd be more boxed units sold than subscribers, but Blizzard don't give out numbers for boxes... It makes me wonder if the reverse is true - if the subscriber numbers include all players (even one's no longer playing). It's not entirely clear.
However, the expansion boxes sell about half the numbers - Burning Crusade at 6.42 million, Lich King at 5.24 million - so I think some inflation creeps in somewhere. :)
Posted by: Chris | Monday, 15 February 2010 at 14:40