Posted on Friday 25-Mar-2011 10:07 AM

Guitar Hero 3 is biggest money maker in US history

But Call of Duty: Black Ops looks set to overtake fellow Activision game

By Tom Ivan for computerandvideogames.com

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the biggest revenue generator in US videogame history.

Five Activision titles made the top ten list, according to data given to CNBC (via Gamasutra) by the NPD Group.

Guitar Hero III generated $830.9 million in retail sales, including bundles with guitar controllers, but not including money made from DLC.

Guitar Hero 3 Screenshot
Call of Duty: Black Ops took second place with $787.4 million in earnings. Both Call of Duty Modern Warfare games also made the list, alongside another Guitar Hero title, Rock Band, and four Nintendo Wii games.

NPD has only been tracking US game sales data since 1995, hence the omission of classic titles like Super Mario Bros. 3, which sold 18 million units on the NES.

It didn't include games bundled with consoles, like Wii Sports, for its top ten list.

01. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock* $830.9 million

02. Call of Duty: Black Ops $787.4 million

03. Wii Fit (w/ Balance Board) $736.6 million

04. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 $713.6 million

05. Rock Band*$670.7 million

06. Wii Play (w/ Wii Remote)

7. Guitar Hero World Tour*

08. Wii Fit Plus

09. Mario Kart Wii (w/ Wii Wheel)

10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Activision shut its Guitar Hero business unit last month

[ Source: CNBC ]

computerandvideogames.com
Tom Ivan
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Comments

7 comments so far...

  1. Report this post Reply with quote
    Imaduck on 25 Mar '11 said:

    'Merica, f**k yeah! .....

  2. Report this post Reply with quote
    Midjet on 25 Mar '11 said:

    Why am I not surprised Wii Fit is up in third place...fat bastards. Now, someone pass me my remote, I'm too busy eating my triple chocolate pancakes with bacon and syrup to change the channel. Oh and no, I won't say please.

  3. Report this post Reply with quote
    Seven24 on 25 Mar '11 said:

    Makes you wonder when this medium is going to be given the same recognistion that is given to films or books.
    There are some truly great artistic talents in this industry and one day the may get them same respect from your average gamer.

  4. Report this post Reply with quote
    BenThomasFoster on 25 Mar '11 said:

    And people said black ops would fail compared to MW2. just shows how we don't care so much about modern warfare anymore

  5. Report this post Reply with quote
    milky_joe on 25 Mar '11 said:

    Those revenue figures make the 'console games are dying' comments of a certain developer of a game with $70m revenue look rather foolish...

  6. Report this post Reply with quote
    solamon77 on 27 Mar '11 said:

    I can think of so many more worthy games than some of those on that list.

  7. Report this post Reply with quote
    bizzkid28 on 1 Apr '11 said:

    And all you crazies say Bobby Kotick is the devil? Well the devil knows how to run a business and apparently not too bad to work for, even though I think Guitar Hero sucks. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/29 ... -blizzard/