According to the data, video game sales reached $5.2 billion (160.7 million units), computer games sales sold $1.1 billion (45 million units), and portable games sold $1 billion (42.3 million units)--totaling 248 million units. These figures compare to 239.3 million games sold and revenues of $7 billion in 2003.
Twelve game titles sold more than 1 million units each in 2004. Fifty games sold more than 500,000 units, and 197 exceeded 250,000 units. Among PC games, two titles sold more than 500,000 units, and 18 broke the 250,000 mark.
Interesting - wonder when the billion dollar PC market is going to die?
That said, I'm surprised at how few PC games sold over 500,000 units. Only 2? What were those, HL2 and Doom 3? Or a Sims title maybe? Seems the threshold for relative success is 250k copies, but that seems low. I always hear/read that major publishers are looking for 500k minimum, but that doesn't look like that's a probable result given these numbers. For example, I've always heard that Fallout/Fallout 2 each sold about 250k, but people always say they were great sales successes. This would seem to say otherwise.
Grifman wrote: Seems the threshold for relative success is 250k copies, but that seems low.
From what I remember, and of course it's going to depend on the genre and the game and the costs, but a game selling over 100,000 copies is usually considered a moderate success. That's how you get things like Mall Tycoon 2 and Airport Tycoon 3. And, of course, the data is probably only domestic and only counting specific stores.
Computer gamers skewed differently, buying strategy games (26.9 percent), family and children's entertainment games (20.3 percent) and shooter games (16.3 percent), followed by role-playing games (10 percent), adventure games (5.9 percent), sports games (5.4 percent), and action games (3.9 percent).
Huh. I'm suprised shooter games are so low. And I guess Adventure and RPGs are doing well given the smaller numbers of games being released in those genres.
I would be surprised if HL2 and Doom3 were the top selling games in terms of units sold. Both were premium priced (Blizzard and Microsoft are the only two that consistently get away with that), and both had high system requirements, limiting their appeal to hard-core gamers only. More likely those two titles were something like Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and Sims something or other - did any Harry Potter games come out this year? The first Harry Potter game sold more than 700,000 units in under two months when it was released.
Jeff V wrote:I would be surprised if HL2 and Doom3 were the top selling games in terms of units sold.
You doubt HL2 is a top seller? I always thought that FPS were big sellers, especially games by Value and Id. If they weren't then how could Value take 4 or 5 years to make it and still make any money? But I guess it is time for you to be surprised - HL2 has sold 1.7 million copies in a month and a half:
Grifman wrote:HL2 has sold 1.7 million copies in a month and a half:
Unless your link is to an updated story - that figure doesn't include Steam purchases. That's just the VU numbers.
And in banks across the world
Christians, Moslems, Hindus, Jews
And every other race, creed, colour, tint or hue
Get down on their knees and pray
The raccoon and the groundhog neatly
Make up bags of change
But the monkey in the corner
Well he's slowly drifting out of range
When I was still running my MS Space Sim fan site, I got an email from one of the developers who stated that (at that time) MS would not be releasing a sequel or add-on until it reached sales of 200,000 copies, which it never did.
"I've been fighting with reality for over thirty-five years, and I'm happy to say that I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
Here are the full price charts of the 2nd biggest market for PC games:
Hard numbers are not publicly available. The numbers below indicate confirmed _minimum_ sell through. The sources are official sales awards or press releases.
1. Die Sims 2 (Electronic Arts) - 500k
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games)
Need for Speed Underground 2 (Electronic Arts) - 250k
Sacred (Ascaron/Take 2) - 250k
Die Siedler: Das Erbe der Könige (Ubisoft) (= Settlers 5) - 250k
Battlefield Vietnam (Electronic Arts)
Fussball Manager 2005 (Electronic Arts)
Die Schlacht um Mittel-Erde (Electronic Arts) (= Battle for Middle Earth) - 100k
Rome: Total War (Activision)
10. Codename: Panzers (CDV) - clearly more than 100k
Grifman wrote:Interesting - wonder when the billion dollar PC market is going to die?
Considering it lost half its marketshare in 3 years and doesn't show signs of improving, I'm going to guess 2 to 3 years at the current rate. Assuming it doesn't start accellerating as publishers bail.
Grifman wrote: For example, I've always heard that Fallout/Fallout 2 each sold about 250k, but people always say they were great sales successes. This would seem to say otherwise.
Well development cost were a lot lower 6 years ago.
Originally posted by baron calamity:
I'm going to guess 2 to 3 years at the current rate.
Sticking with the same 2-3 years that you've been predicting for the last five years or so, I see.
I raised no concerns about the pc economicaly untill late 2001 and I was concerned about the number of quality titles that weren't ports in 3 years. Looking at 2005 release schedule, I can't find fault in my original concerns.
While the PC market has been shrinking, my hopes for the future of PC gaming is that the PC is the ultimate platform for gaming if you want the best graphics and customizable options. So, for example, there will be releases of Diablo 3 on Xbox 2, PS3, GC2, and PC. The PC version being the best one.
