What Do The Best Selling Games of All Time Have In Common?
What Do The Best Selling Games of All Time Have In Common?
Gaming is more popular now, than it has ever been and there are sales to prove it, but what do the best selling games of all time have in common? Let’s take a look at games that have sold over 25 million copies and figure out what threads these 37 games all share.
What’s interesting about games that have sold more than 25 million is that out of the 37 titles, the list is varied. There are many different genres, different ages, original titles, sequels, motion based games, and all kinds of different ways to divide the list which is nice because it proves that no matter what the game, if the quality is there, anything can become the best selling game of all time.
Random Facts
Now for some random facts:
2006 and 2011 both had 4 games sell over 25 million copies. The average age of the games on the list is 14.4 years, which would land us back in 2008 ish, which is right in the middle of the two best selling years.
The total combined sales of the top 37 games is approximately 1.739 billion. There are three Call of Duty titles, three GTA, three Pokemon, 4 core Super Mario titles, 6 games with Wii in the name, but only 4 motion based games on the list, there are no PlayStation or Xbox exclusives, 16 Nintendo exclusive titles which means 21 multi-platform titles, six launch titles and the average length of each game is around 21.2 hours to complete.
In terms of genre, there are six FPS, five action-adventure, four sports titles, 5 RPG, 4 Platformers and thirteen other titles from a whole bunch of other genres that make up the rest of the list.
What Will Be The Next Game To Sell 25 Million?
When looking at the upcoming release calendar, there are a few candidates that jump off the page. God of War: Ragnarok has a chance as God of War 2018 has sold over 20 million just on the PS4. Ragnarok is launching on PS4 and PS5, meaning that there will be more potential buyers. Starfield has a chance as Skyrim has sold 30 million but Starfield has big shoes to fill plus it will be on Game Pass. Finally, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet has a chance depending on reviews as Sword and Shield have sold over 24.5 million since 2019.
With a new game selling more than 25 million copies once every 2-3 years on average and the last game to accomplish this feat being Animal Crossing: New Horizons back in March of 2020 with almost 40 million copies sold to date, we are overdue for a new game to reach this milestone.