January 4th 2009 6:00 pm PT

interesting post.
I do love CoD4 and GH3.

Kinda strange that COD4 has been (mainly) at the top of each weeks list for the year and yet Halo 3 is top of the all year list. Maybe its just this last month and a bit that WaW has been out that H3 has managed to make up the numbers to overtake COD4? Im pleased for it though, and COD4 for being beastly games.

Can’t really believe that Gears 1 has beaten COD5? I know Gears 1 has been available all year and that COD5 has only had a month and a bit to make up its numbers, but that just goes to show how many ppl musta played it week in week out all year with the likes of Halo 3/COD4/GTA4 around (+ other gd games) to get to where it is given its been out 2 years now! Good stuff Epic…not just fix Gears 2 multi!

I was wondering something Major Nelson. If you were to merge the 360 and XBox lists, would Halo 2, Fable, and possibly even Star Wars: Battlefront 2 be on the top twenty? Just wondering. Good to see BF:BC and R6:V2 on the top twenty list.

LOL

I guess everyone who played Gears 2 missed the Shotgun in Gears 1 and went right back to it.

I agree, where is the love for Carcassonne(By far most epic multiplayer puzzle game ever, I mean when you lose by one point because of postgame scoring, the words start flying lol.) and Catan? I guess to many people these days are only interested in the hyped(Braid, Nukem,Keflings,pub games) or violent(Castle Crasher, and almost every other on the list), I say go Worms, N+, Marble Blast, and Portal, showing that there is still a puzzle audience left in this community.

Oh and Kudos to Mega Man 9, pure epic, makes me feel like a kid again.

Also I guess the free games(Aegis Wing, Dash for Destruction, and Yaris(Bad memories)) Don’t count right?

I’m wondering now if the list records Unique Users based on IP addresses (which is what the Wikipedia article implies) or by Gamertags (which would make more sense as a measurement to me).

If it goes by the number of unique Gamertags that logged into Live on each game throughout the year, that could explain how some games seemed to be ahead during certain weeks but not overall for the year.

Are you use #9 is the demo and not the actual game? Yikes!

How was Left 4 dead not on the list, yet it won best multiplayer game of the year in the OXM?

The numbers make pretty good sense to me…Halo 3 and COD4 went back and forth for most of the year, which would imply the numbers were “close” every week, and then when WaW came out the COD4 numbers took a major hit, while Halo 3′s stayed constant. H3 fans will always play Halo, but a lot of COD4 fans at least tried WaW, even if they went back later. I do think there should be a “popular demo” list, though, leaving the top 20 games to actual games played. It just doesn’t seem fair to knock a game like Fallout 3, Grid, or NCAA Football 09 off the list to make room for free demo games that almost everyone downloads, but that only get played a time or two. A better stat would be to track TIME played by UU on a certain title, which would give more credit to a game that was actually played, rather than one a million people downloaded and played once.

“A better stat would be to track TIME played by UU on a certain title, which would give more credit to a game that was actually played, rather than one a million people downloaded and played once.”
That would work- except for the fact that some people may play longer. One game can have 5 million people playing one hour a week, and another can have 3 million 2 hours a week. That doesn’t reflect the popularity of the title- it just says some people play some games longer.

This list is flawed. There’s no way Keflings is that high when Street Fighter HD had more sales every week.

I still want to see a merged list again. I realize why they separated the Xbox and Xbox 360 lists (because for a long time Halo 2 was on top of the list–beating out GoW–and it’s kind of embarrassing for a last gen game to be on top) but I would really like to see a merged list as well. I want to know where the old Xbox games stand relative to 360 games.

Gears 2 FTW!!

I have never figured out how people can play the same game over and over. Sure, I played Call of Duty a lot (November 07 – April 08) but than I got sick of it and stopped playing it. The fun should eventually come to an end, everything else just doesn’t make much sense to me.

” The fun should eventually come to an end”
Why? I’ve only bought 9 games in my life: halopc, halo2, halo 3, fable1, fable 2, rome total war, medieval total war, age of mythology, gears of war.
Still play them on a regular basis and I’m still enjoying them.

Fallout 3 can’t be played on Xbox Live hence it not being on the list.

@dirty whirlwind
Myself and other friends who do not play sports games wonder the SAME thing about guys who HAVE to have the ‘NEW’ Madden or ‘NFL’ or ‘NBA’ – basically the same game with an updated roster, textures and a few more animations – all for $60 each time. But the only answer we have is like ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, “The game is fun to whom enjoys it.”

Nice to know that I own all the Top 5 games on this list. I guess I only play the best of the best.

Wtf. No Street Fighter Anniversary Edition.

Keep in mind, this is not a list of the *best* games, but a list of the games being played most. And yes, I would think that if a game shows up being played as a demo, but not the full-version, it means that people learned from the demo that they didn’t want to play it. Mirror’s Edge was that for me… the demo showed me what it was about and that it didn’t interest me. Not a value or quality judgement, just not my type of game. I saw the same thing from watching someone else play Fallout 3 – the freeze-frame aiming and shooting just seemed lame to me.

Wow I don’t see Saints Row 2 or Left 4 Dead and Gears 2 in 4th place wow.

I’d bet that TimeSplitters: Future Perfect would be on that list if the backward compatibility were added. I heard Microsoft complain that nobody was using the b/c, and I say: of course! No one is going to use it if you don’t make great games compatible! Bring me the ORIGINAL Xbox Live Arcade disc and all Free Radical games!

Loved the expanded list. Gives it more depth. Like to see that on an ongoing basis.

take that call of duty

I think its awesome Halo 3 is still on top. Go Halo!