XBLA Tops $100m in 2009

John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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XBLA Tops $100m in 2009



As it turns out, Xbox 360 owners really like their Arcade games: XBLA sales generated over $100 million dollars last year.

According to a report from Forecasting and Analysing Digital Entertainment (FADE), Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service had quite the good year in 2009 even as the rest of the economy crumbled. XBLA sales for '09 were estimated at $103.4 million (£65.9m), which was a 34% increase from 2008 - partially due to an increase of sales, but partially due to an increase in the average price of XBLA games: $8.33 (in 2008) to $9.12 (in 2009), with the vast majority of the year's bestsellers priced at $15.

Interestingly enough, FADE's analysis states that the average Xbox Live user spent $2.79 on the service over 2009, which was actually down from 2008. I'm not sure how to wrap my head around this one, since obviously $2.79 is much less than most XBLA games command, so it would seem to be averaging XBLA sales between everybody connected to Xbox Live (which, at Microsoft's last reveal, would be over 20 million consoles) ... so if I'm reading this right, while sales were up overall, they didn't quite keep pace with the growth of Xbox Live in general over the past year.

The year's top games were The Behemoth's Castle Crashers and EA DICE's Battlefield 1943, estimated to sell over a million copies and over 800,000 copies, respectively. FADE's full list of the top ten XBLA games by revenue is below:

[blockquote]Estimated Top Titles by Revenue, 2009 (Average Price)

-Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) - $12.5 million ($15.00)
-Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) - $7.3 million ($15.00)
-Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) - $7.1 million ($15.00)
-Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment / Epic Games) - $6.1 -million ($14.38)
-Family Game Night (Hasbro) - $4.2 million ($9.53)
-Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom) - $4.2 million ($15.00)
-Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) - $2.8 million ($10.00)
-Worms 2 (Team 17) - $1.8 million ($10.00)
-Peggle (PopCap Games) - $1.8 million ($8.86)
-Turtles in Time: Reshelled (Ubisoft Singapore) - $1.7 million ($10.00)[/blockquote]

I'm not quite sure why BF1943 is above Castle Crashers if the latter was estimated at selling 200,000 more copies than the former, but I'm sure there's some honest explanation that isn't actually "We're bad at math," I just don't know what it is.

(GI.biz [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/xbox-live-arcade-topped-USD100m-in-2009])

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Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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I bought Battlefield, Shadow Complex, Magic, and Castle Crashers from that list. Shadow Complex being my favorite by far.

I didn't buy MvC2, because the demo sucked. WHAT KIND OF DEMO OFFERS LOCAL VERSUS ONLY? I couldn't actually fight anything, not even an AI. I'm not going to buy it just on its reputation as the BEST FIGHTING GAME EVER.
 

HardRockSamurai

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May 28, 2008
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hmmm, maybe these results have something to do with this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97974-Analyst-Xbox-360-Set-to-Dominate-2010]?

John Funk said:
...I'm not quite sure why BF1943 is above Castle Crashers if the latter was estimated at selling 200,000 more copies than the former...
These are just some of my wild guesses, but some possible reasons may include:

1. The fact that four people can play Castle Crashers with one copy on one console.
2. The multiple "deal of the week"s that constantly lowered the price of Castle Crashers at random intervals.
3. Perhaps a select group of rich idiots decided to purchase BF1943 on a silver account [http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/battlefield1943_90000.jpg] during it's initial release.
 

MurderousToaster

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Aug 9, 2008
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HardRockSamurai said:
hmmm, maybe these results have something to do with this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97974-Analyst-Xbox-360-Set-to-Dominate-2010]?

John Funk said:
...I'm not quite sure why BF1943 is above Castle Crashers if the latter was estimated at selling 200,000 more copies than the former...
These are just some of my wild guesses, but some possible reasons may include:

1. The fact that four people can play Castle Crashers with one copy on one console.
2. The multiple "deal of the week"s that constantly lowered the price of Castle Crashers at random intervals.
3. Perhaps a select group of rich idiots decided to purchase BF1943 on a silver account [http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/battlefield1943_90000.jpg] during it's initial release.

I'd pay 90000 MSP for it! Actually, no.

I wouldn't.

But I WOULD pay 90000 MSP for an Uber-Xbox which can run EVERYTHING at ONCE at OVER NINE THOUSAND frames per microsecond.

Mmmm.
 

SantoUno

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Aug 13, 2009
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Well EVENTUALLY I will buy some of those games, but Castlevania: Symphony of the Night demands to be my first purchase NO MATTER WHAT.
 

sean.A7x

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Dec 16, 2009
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out of those i got; castle crashers, battlefield 1943, Shadow Complex and worms 2 :p

castle crasher was the best :p
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Thats alot of money for some great classics. Looks like Microsfot had a good idea with it =D
 

brabz

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Jan 3, 2008
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I own 5 of the 10 listed there; arcade has a great mix of new titles and classics. Probably spend close to as much on XBLA as I do on new game releases in a given year.
 

kjackson

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Feb 6, 2010
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Just wanted to point out, that Castle Crashers has sold 1 million in total, but more than half of that came in 2008. The list is strictly 2009 revenue. So it's not bad math. :)
 

SnootyEnglishman

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May 26, 2009
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I gots me my Castle Crashers immediately upon buying my 360 i also have Smash TV and TRON among my arcade library. That's just cool to know
 

hansari

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May 31, 2009
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John Funk said:
-Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) - $7.3
YEEESH!!!

Newgrounds has been upping the presence of advertisements on their website while removing cash prizes during its competitions.

I thought they were strapped for cash?! I mean, Castle Crashers probably did cost a lot of money to make...but still...
 

ManOfSteel

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Feb 7, 2010
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FADE is VGChartz in disguise- they both share the same server- so I'd take these figures with a large dose of salt, along with any other figures they release. According to an admin on the VGChartz forums, they're about to release Steam sales figures and have developed a method of polling 5 million Steam users to generate them. Sounds like bull to me.
 

Teh_Doomage

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Jan 11, 2009
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Pimppeter2 said:
Woo! I haven't bought any!

I'm not a statistic.
That still makes you a statistic...part of the number of people who didn't buy any.

Also, lots of good titles on that list.