Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Top 10 Games That Sold a Console

Top 10 Games That Sold a Console

We are well into the new generation of consoles these days, and support for older consoles like the PS3 and the Xbox 360 is slowly being scaled back. It’s around this time that all the gamers who have been sitting on the fence about what console they want to buy finally have to make a decision. What game will make you choose sides?

Before you answer, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and see what games sold the consoles of the past. All of these games were console exclusive at the time, came out toward the beginning of the console’s lifespan, and they are all some of the best-selling titles the console has to offer. These are the top ten games that sold a console.

Soul Calibur – Dreamcast

Soul Calibur – Dreamcast

The Dreamcast’s ability to render arcade level graphics was a real game changer at the time of its release. Games from before the release of the Dreamcast were usually just poor imitations of their arcade counterparts, sporting reduced graphics and limited gameplay modes. But the Dreamcast proved that the home console could do everything an arcade cabinet could do and better, and Soul Calibur was their first proof of concept. Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast was better than the arcade version in every way, from its increased modes to its arcade caliber graphics. If you were getting a Dreamcast, you were getting it for Soul Calibur and the many fighting games to follow, with the added benefit of being able to play Sonic Adventure and a couple other Sega exclusives.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – PlayStation 3

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – PlayStation 3

The Xbox 360 was doing far better than the PS3 when both consoles first came out. Not only did the Xbox have a year’s head start on the PS3, it had a ton of blockbuster titles already under its belt. If you decided to stick with Sony over Microsoft in the last generation, you had to have a good reason. For most, it was Sony’s host of Japanese exclusives, and no exclusive was bigger than Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. MGS 4 was only outsold by two other games, Gran Turismo 5 and The Last of Us, and while both were fantastic in their own right, neither came out close enough to the system’s launch to really be called a system seller. After Crash Bandicoot, Solid Snake was the closest thing Sony had to a mascot at the time, and it showed.

Super Mario 64 – N64

Super Mario 64 – N64

You are going to see Mario’s face on this list a lot. The Italian plumber has been the face of Nintendo for a while, and you could only play him on Nintendo consoles. Super Mario 64 was revolutionary, as it was the first console game to really explore 3D polygonal space. It pioneered concepts like camera controls and analog stick movement, and created the formula that 3D Mario games follow to this day (collect some stars to proceed onward). This wasn’t just the next Mario game, it was the next step in gaming technology, and everyone wanted to play it.

Super Smash. Bros Melee – Gamecube

Super Smash. Bros Melee – Gamecube

Smash Bros. has been Nintendo’s killer app for some time now. Even when their console isn’t doing well, Smash does fantastic. Melee was the first and arguably only Smash that was really taken seriously as a professional competitive video game, and as a result nearly everyone had to own it. The Gamecube wasn’t the most popular console at the time, but many people decided to own it in addition to their primary console just so they can play Smash. The game has sold over 7.09 million copies to date and I’m sure if Nintendo wanted to, they could inflate that number even more, as there is still a huge secondary market for copies of Melee on sites like eBay.

Wii Sports – Wii

Wii Sports – Wii

“Hold on!” you might be saying. “Wasn’t Wii Sports packaged with the Wii?” Well, first of all, it wasn’t packaged with the Wii in Japan, nor was it packaged with every Wii bundle that came out here in America. Second of all, tons of people purchased Wiis and never purchased many games outside of Wii Sports. For the first several years of the Wii’s lifespan, everyone was simply going crazy over Wii tennis and Wii bowling. If you saw Wiis in a public space like a bar or a hospital, these were the games that were loaded on to them. These simple motion control tech demos were more than enough to sell a whole console to a whole generation, and it’s arguably why the Wii won the console war last generation without having many blockbuster AAA titles to speak of.

Halo 2 – Xbox

Halo 2 – Xbox

I’m cheating here a little. Halo was certainly closer to the release of the Xbox and is definitely the reason why so many people took a chance on a company which never made a game console before. But Halo 2 was just so much more revolutionary than Halo was. Halo 2 practically determined the online suite for every single shooter that came after it. It sold Xboxes even later into the console’s life, because it sold an entire gaming populace on the concept of online play. Online gaming was still new at the time, but Halo 2 and Xbox Live proved that it could work, and changed how we looked at multiplayer gaming from that point onward.

Sonic: The Hedgehog – Genesis

Sonic: The Hedgehog – Genesis

Sega does what Nintendon’t and what Nintendidn’t was Sonic: The Hedgehog. Sonic was everything that Mario wasn’t. While Mario was cute and friendly, Sonic had an attitude which pleased all the 90s kids out there. While Mario was about precision platforming, Sonic was all about speed. Sonic introduced the era of attitude into gaming. While previous games were all about cartoony heroes going about their business, Sonic showed us that badassery and blast processing were enough to sell a console. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. For Sonic to go from a mascot that sold a console to a generation to Sonic Boom – well let’s just not talk about Sonic Boom.

Duck Hunt – NES

Duck Hunt – NES

Wait a minute! Why is Super Mario Bros. not in the slot for the NES? Simple: because Super Mario Bros. didn’t sell the system, the system sold Super Mario Bros. You see, the NES came out during a time when people had lost faith in the video game market. The idea of having another wood paneled video game system was daunting, as the market was oversaturated as it was. So Nintendo had a better idea. They were going to market their console not as a video game system, but as a toy set, and one of the ways they convinced people of their identity as a toy set was by including a little plastic gun called the NES Zapper. Duck Hunt is the second best selling NES title out there, totalling 28 million copies sold (compared to Super Mario Bros. at 40 million), and if it weren’t for Duck Hunt, there would be no Zapper, and no Zapper means that the NES would have had to sell itself on R.O.B. the Robotic Operating Buddy – and we all know that would have been doomed to failure.

Final Fantasy VII – PlayStation

Final Fantasy VII – PlayStation

When the N64 faced off against the PlayStation, Nintendo lost a lot of its third party support. Many flocked to the PlayStation and its CD format, if only because CDs could hold more data, which allowed for better graphics and sound. Squaresoft was a trailblazer at the time, ditching the N64 for the PlayStation for Final Fantasy VII. This was a showcase of everything the PlayStation could do, from FMV and CD Audio to multi-disc gaming, and it is still considered one of the best RPGs of all time. If you were jumping ship, there was a good chance Final Fantasy VII was your motivator.

Tetris – Gameboy

Tetris – Gameboy

Tetris is the ultimate killer app, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It sold 35 million copies, and it sold the Game Boy to a tremendous amount of people. While the NES was for kids who had time to sit in front of the TV, the Game Boy was for everyone, including stay at home moms, workers who had to take public transport… anyone you could think of! It was a game that was simple, addictive, and fun, and it still exists! New versions of Tetris are being made to this day. Millions of people jumped at the chance to play Tetris on a simple portable handheld system that they could keep in their pocket, and thus the Game Boy was spread worldwide.

To top