The Results Are In!

The NPD Group has just released their results for the best selling games of 2006, some of which suprised the hell out of me. Accompanying that list is a tally of the best selling games of December, no doubt a giant month for software sales during the holiday season. Let's start with the December results:

1. Gears of War - Xbox 360 (Microsoft)
2. Guitar Hero 2 Bundle- PS2 (Activision)
3. Madden NFL 07 - PS2 (Electronic Arts)
4. Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess - GCN (Nintendo)
5. Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Wii (Nintendo)
6. WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 - PS2 (THQ)
7. New Super Mario Bros. - NDS (Nintendo)
8. Call of Duty 3 - Xbox 360 (Activision)
9. Yoshi's Island 2 - NDS (Nintendo)
10. Call of Duty 3 - PS2 (Activision)

Frankly, Gears of War was destined to have one of the top spots, but for me, the real shocker here is the fact that Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess actually managed to move more discs on the GameCube rather than the Wii. Perhaps it's not that big of a stretch considering Wii shortages are still present even today (which probably also explains the lack of any PS3 games). However, it's nice to see Nintendo's DS competing with the big dogs as they land two games in the top ten (versus zero from Sony's PSP).

Now then, here are the top ten sellers for 2006:

1. Madden NFL 07 - PS2 (Electronic Arts)
2. New Super Mario Bros. - NDS (Nintendo)
3. Gears of War - Xbox 360 (Microsoft)
4. Kingdom Hearts II - PS2 (Square Enix)
5. Guitar Hero 2 Bundle- PS2 (Activision)
6. Final Fantasy XII - PS2 (Square Enix)
7. Brain Age: Train Your Brain - NDS (Nintendo)
8. Madden NFL 07 - Xbox 360 (Electronic Arts)
9. Tom Clancy's GRAW - Xbox 360 (UbiSoft)
10. NCAA Football 07 - PS2 (Electronic Arts)

Again, big props to Nintendo for having the second best selling game of 2006...and for a handheld at that! Proof that Mario hasn't outlived it's usefulness in the gaming community. Also making a big splash this year was the aforementioned Gears of War and Guitar Hero II. Both titles were released on November 7 in the U.S. and barely had two months to generate sales. Yet, both were strong enough to secure the number 3 and 5 spots, respectively. Though I half expected Rainbow Six: Las Vegas up there (especially in place of Tom Clancy's GRAW).

Overall there was a lot less noise from the Xbox 360 which seemed to take a backseat to PS2 games during the year. I expect the Wii and PS3 will begin to take some of the attention away during '07 as Nintendo begins to roll out more first part mascot games and as the PS3 simply begins to roll out more consoles with games people actually want to play.