An analyst group today gave us a rare peek into how much sales and revenue downloadable games might actually make. The comparison is between Microsoft’s and Nintendo’s offerings which look about evenly successful, but only at first glance.
The Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE) today gave these estimates in their annual report for how much digital gaming sold and made in 2009. FADE made estimates on actual game sales numbers based on known revenue and various effects on the console digital market throughout the year.
Between XBLA – minus downloadable content, and the Wii Shop Channel, the top-selling original downloadable game in both revenue and estimated numbers was Battlefield 1943 which on XBLA alone brought in $12.5 million. At the game’s $15 pricepoint that comes up to around 833,000 copies sold. It is the fastest-selling XBLA game of all time.
The only thing to sell more between the two services was Super Mario Bros. 3 on Virtual Console with about $5 million in revenue. At $5 per copy, it seems to be the only downloadable console game to sell over a million in 2009 – two years after its 2007 downloadable release. From there, numbers just about plummet.
The next highest-selling XBLA game is Castle Crashers with $7.3 million – estimated to around 486,000 at its $15 pricepoint. Other top games like Trials HD, Shadow Complex, and and Family Game Night are listed below.
The Wii Shop Channel looks simlar with most of its top games being in the 200,000-to-300,000 range with one exception. The original Super Mario Bros. on Virtual Console sold around 660,000.
The combined top 10 list for the Wii Shop Channel – including both WiiWare and Virtual Console, like retail Wii game sales, is dominated by Nintendo games, which made up 76 percent of all Wii Shop sales. On Wii Shop however more specifically it’s the Super Mario Bros. games on Virtual Console, four of which are on the list. It should be noted that Nintendo only made 16 percent of WiiWare’s revenue – representative of their deliberately taking a back seat to third party developers there.
The sole third party Wii Shop Channel game to make the top 10 chart for 2009 was World of Goo on WiiWare – number two in terms of revenue but number three in estimated sales. It brought in $4.8 million and sold an estimated 320,000 copies at its $15 price point. World of Goo was IGN’s Wii game of 2008 both downloadable and overall.
The rest of the top 10 Wii Shop chart is covered by games like Tetris Party, the N64 Legend of Zelda games, Pokemon Rumble, and Pokemon Ranch, all listed below.
Estimated Top Western Wii Shop Channel Titles by Revenue, 2009 (Price in USD):
1. Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo, NES) – $5 million ($5.00) [est. 1 million copies]
2. World of Goo (2D Boy, WiiWare) – $4.8 million ($15.00) [320,000]
3. Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, NES) – $3.3 million ($5.00) [660,000]
4. Super Mario World (Nintendo, SNES) – $2.9 million ($8.00) [363,000]
5. Super Mario 64 (Nintendo, N64) – $2.7 million ($10.00) [270,000]
6. Tetris Party (Hudson, WiiWare) – $2.6 million ($12.00) [217,000]
7. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the (Nintendo, N64) – $2.3 million ($10.00) [230,000]
8. Pok̩mon Rumble (Nintendo, WiiWare) Р$2.2 million ($15.00) [147,000]
9. Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, the (Nintendo, N64) – $2.1 million ($10.00) [210,000]
10. My Pok̩mon Ranch (Nintendo, WiiWare) Р$2 million ($10.00) [200,000]
Western markets include North and South America, Europe, and Australia.
Estimated Top Xbox Live Arcade Titles by Revenue, 2009 (Price in USD):
1. Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) – $12.5 million ($15.00) [est. 833,000 copies]
2. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) – $7.3 million ($15.00) [486,000]
3. Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) – $7.1 million ($15.00) [473,000]
4. Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment / Epic Games) – $6.1 million ($14.38) [424,000]*
5. Family Game Night (Hasbro) – $4.2 million ($9.53) [440,000]*
6. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom) – $4.2 million ($15.00) [280,000]
7. Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) – $2.8 million ($10.00) [280,000]
8. Worms 2 (Team 17) – $1.8 million ($10.00) [180,000]
9. Peggle (PopCap Games) – $1.8 million ($8.86) [203,000]*
10. Turtles in Time: Reshelled (Ubisoft Singapore) – $1.7 million ($10.00) [170,000]
*Indicates the game had a sale.
As for the combined 2009 revenue for each service, the Wii Shop Channel slightly overtook Xbox Live Arcade, but that depends on which individual channels are measured.
Xbox Live A rcade broke the $100 million revenue mark for the first time in 2009, making $103.4 million – an increase of 34 percent from 2008. The combined Wii Shop Channel made about $125 million in 2009.
However, WiiWare on its own only made about $59 million, but that is a 30 percent increase from 2008. Virtual Console got the slight upper hand with $66 million, but that represents an almost 25 percent decline from its own 2008 revenue. This comes due to a fewer Virtual Console releases, both big-name and otherwise.
This makes the platform comparison a bit uneven since XBLA is one service while the WiiShop Channel is comprised of two. Also, this analysis doesn’t account for the entirety of of the Xbox Live Marketplace which also includes not only DLC, but Games on Demand titles including original Xbox games. There is also no data on Playstation Network.
FADE expects both WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade to grow in 2010.
