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Top Xbox Live stats for 2008 look good for Castle Crashers and Halo 3
10:30 AM on 01.05.2009, Jim Sterling 17 comments

Top Xbox Live stats for 2008 look good for Castle Crashers and Halo 3 photo
     Xbox Live Arcade

The new year festivities may be over, but there is still some time for reflective stat crunching if you're Xbox Live's resident cheeky chappy, Major "Major Nelson" Nelson. The Nelsonator has revealed 2008's top Xbox Live successes, charting the major games played over XBL and purchased on Live Arcade. 

If you like indie, then this was a good year on XBLA. Castle Crashers topped the chart, followed by Geometry Wars 2, but it's the fact that Braid is in third place which warms my heart. This is the type of game you'd have expected to fail, especially with Microsoft deciding to hawk the price up. I find it encouraging that a game of Braid's caliber can actually get into a sales chart at all, let along take third place.

As for Xbox Live play, Halo 3 unsurprisingly takes the lead, followed by Call of Duty 4 and GTA IV. The list is more or less a lineup of the usual suspects, so it needn't be a shock. 

The full list of stats come after the jump, just in case you really love numbers.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
Call of Duty 4
GTA IV
Gears of War 2
Gears of War
CoD: World at War
Guitar Hero III
Battlefield: Bad Company Demo
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo
Rock Band
Fable II
Mirror's Edge Demo
Madden NFL 09
BF: Bad Company
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
UNO
Castle Crashers
COD: World at War Multiplayer Beta
Forza Motorsport 2
Too Human - Demo

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)
Castle Crashers
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Braid
A Kingdom for Keflings
UNO
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Fable II Pub Games
Duke Nukem 3D
Bionic Commando: Rearmed
Worms
SOULCALIBUR
Portal: Still Alive
DOOM
1942: Joint Strike
Bomberman Live
MEGA MAN 9
N+
Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
Marble Blast Ultra
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
Halo 2
Fable
Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
Counter-Strike
Fable: Lost Chapters
Doom 3
Conker: Live Reloaded
Splinter Cell Chaos
SW: KOTOR
SW: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Battlefront
Burnout 3
Guilty Gear XX #Reload
Gauntlet Seven Sorrows
Call of Duty 3
Ninja Gaiden Black
Crimson Skies
MechAssault 2
Call of Duty 2
Rainbow Six 3

Next page: More Xbox 360 stories




Darth Kupi's Avatar
Darth Kupi at 01/05/2009 10:48
CoD4 is still kicking ass and chewing bubblegum!

Hell, its even in the Top10 of Steam and D2Drive charts.

Awesome-sauce.
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 01/05/2009 10:48
@Char Aznable

You mean "last year" right?
Usedtabe's Avatar
Usedtabe at 01/05/2009 10:51
This list is obviously bullshit, especially on the Gears front. How does Gears 2, which has been out almost 2 months, beat an entire year worth of playing from Gears 1? Gears 1 has been in the top 4 since it was released 2 years ago, yet I am supposed to believe that it's 2 month old sequel has already bested that?
Roshey's Avatar
Roshey at 01/05/2009 10:51
Hmm.. couldn't get into Braid that much, and now that they fixed the bug with Castle Crashers I'll have to go back and actually purchase the full game.
CarlostheJackal's Avatar
CarlostheJackal at 01/05/2009 10:56
The Call of Duty games have take over my life so I am sure when I get CoDMW2 in 09 it will be more of the same...although I did play the Mirrors Edge Demo and I must say it was a pretty cool little experience...It kind of feels like that frantic dream we all have where we are trying to do something in our dream but cant get it done no matter what we do...
SephirothX's Avatar
SephirothX at 01/05/2009 11:06
I actually have to agree with Usedtabe... Im curious to how Gears 2, an extremely broken game, managed to topple an entire years worth of Gears 1.
Static Jak's Avatar
Static Jak at 01/05/2009 11:15
Well we don't know the exact numbers that have been playing Gears 1 this year. Hears 2 more then likely had a huge amount of people the first week alone to give a massive boost like most big AAA releases.
pandlcg's Avatar
pandlcg at 01/05/2009 11:50
my guess on the gears 2 oddity is that the same people were playing Gears 1 all year so the unique users propped it up on a weekly basis, but for an entire year they don't get counted multiple times. Whereas Gears 2 had a ton of UUs because it was new.
TheBigFeel's Avatar
TheBigFeel at 01/05/2009 12:17
pandlcg is correct.

List is ranked by #number of unique users,

not ranked by time played.
mistic's Avatar
mistic at 01/05/2009 14:36
yeah 2008 was pretty good, though i still feel 2007 was like a dream...
TrailerParkJesus's Avatar
TrailerParkJesus at 01/05/2009 14:53
I remember seeing Fireplace was ranked something like #2 last week on the community games sold. That was a bit depressing. Otherwise, great year for XBLA
Remo's Avatar
Remo at 01/05/2009 16:58
What does UU mean.
Dexter345's Avatar
Dexter345 at 01/05/2009 18:29
Unique Users.
TheToiletDuck's Avatar
TheToiletDuck at 01/06/2009 07:10
Wow, Kingdom for Keflings beat Street Fighter.. I know there's a significant difference between releases but Street Fighter was stoking its fair share of game boners.

Not to take anything away from KoK (haven't played it yet) but is it fair to assume Avatar support helped out it's sales significantly?
WarZombie's Avatar
WarZombie at 01/06/2009 07:23
How is Left 4 Dead not even on the list? How does a demo of Battlefield: BC beat out L4D? THIS IS BULLSHIT.

Seriously, is anybody else as mad as I am about this?
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