This is How At this time’s Greatest-Promoting Video games Evaluate To twenty Years In the past

At this time’s hottest and best-selling video games usually embody costly first-party exclusives, huge multiplayer hits, and ageing titles like GTA V that stick round years after launch. However that wasn’t the case 20 years in the past, as seen in newly printed gross sales knowledge.

On Wednesday, Mat Piscatella, government director and online game trade advisor at Circana, posted a picture on Twitter exhibiting the best-selling video video games in July 2014 and July 2004. The information from 10 years in the past is attention-grabbing, particularly as a result of a number of video games like Mario Kart 8, Minecraft, and GTA V which had been huge again then are nonetheless seen on best-seller lists in 2024.

July 2014 Prime 20 Premium Software program Titles

1. The Final of Us
2. FIFA 14
3. Watch Canine
4. Mario Kart 8
5. Minecraft
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Name of Obligation: Ghosts
8. Sniper Elite III
9. UFC
10. NBA 2K14
11. Battlefield 4
12. Wolfenstein: The New Order
13. Titanfall
14. The LEGO Film Videogame
15. Murderer’s Creed IV: Black Flag
16. Pokemon X/Y
17. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
18. Injustice: Gods Amongst Us
19. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
20. MLB 14: The Present

However what we’re actually right here to have a look at is the July 2004 knowledge, because it offers a 20-year time capsule of the online game trade and the way completely different it was 20 years in the past. Right here’s that record:

July 2004 Prime 20 Premium Software program Titles

1. NCAA Soccer 2005
2. Spider-Man 2
3. NFL 2K5
4. Driver 3
5. Tales of Symphonia
6. Shrek 2
7. MVP Baseball 2004
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
9. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
10. Pokemon: Ruby/Sapphire
11. Halo: Fight Developed
12. Want for Pace: Underground
13. Mega Man: Anniversary Assortment
14. Purple Useless Revolver
15. Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction
16. Battle Night time 2004
17. Mega Man: Battle Community 4
18. The Sims
19. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004
20. Legend of Zelda: 4 Swords

The very first thing that stands out is the sport on the prime. It’s not a Name of Obligation, a Grand Theft Auto, or perhaps a huge RPG or sci-fi motion recreation. Nope. It’s EA Sports activities’ NCAA Soccer 2005. It’s been a very long time since that has occurred, however the latest faculty soccer recreation from EA—the primary in over a decade—is exploding and may find yourself on the prime of July 2024’s best-selling video games record.

In the meantime, Shrek 2—a licensed action-adventure recreation primarily based on the animated film—is within the prime ten, beating out titles like Purple Useless Revolver, Want for Pace: Underground, and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. I can’t keep in mind the final time a film tie-in recreation cracked the highest charts. And hey, have a look at that! Mega-Man, Driver, and Yu-Gi-Oh! are within the prime 20, t00. It was really a unique period again then, huh?

And evaluating this previous record to Might 2024’s best-selling video games, it’s clear that whereas rather a lot has modified, some issues keep the identical. Baseball video games promote nicely and other people nonetheless like Spider-Man sequels.

Might 2024’s Greatest-Promoting Video games

1. Ghost of Tsushima
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door
3. Name of Obligation: Fashionable Warfare III (2023)
4. Helldivers II
5. MLB: The Present 24
6. Sea of Thieves
7. Minecraft
8. Elden Ring
9. Hogwarts Legacy
10. Stellar Blade
11. Fallout 4
12. EA Sports activities FC 24
13. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
14. Homeworld 3
15. Mario Kart 8
16. Madden NFL 24
17. Rise of the Ronin
18. F1 24
19. Mortal Kombat 1

1. Dragon’s Dogma II

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