Nielsen, the company that provides clients the most complete understanding of what consumers watch and buy, has published their top twenty games to watch for holiday 2011. Amazingly they’ve omitted to include Super Mario 3D Land or Mario Kart 7 which you would expect to be huge sellers this holiday season.
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
2. Gears of War 3
3. Madden NFL 12
4. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
5. Batman: Arkham City
6. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
7. Battlefield 3
8. Just Dance 3
9. NBA 2K12
10. Need for Speed: The Run
11. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
12. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
13. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
14. FIFA Soccer 12
15. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
16. Dead Island
17. Kinect Sports: Season 2
18. Resistance 3
19. Dance Central 2
20. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
and no Star Wars: The Old Republic aswell?
Either some favorism in play or Nielsen is on some amazing crack.
You must be pretty out-of-the-loop to think The Old Republic won’t do well.
Whoops, misread your comment.
it doesnt matter how popular that game is, its a gated release. it cant sell more then a certain amount of copies no matter what, which means it will sell less then all of those other games. that makes it less worth while placing in the list, as even if people want it, they cant actually get it.
its missing more nintendo :l
I highly doubt assassins creed will sell more than Zelda
I agree… Thats it… :(
psh of course it will.
I highly doubt Batman : Arkahm city will sell more than Zelda too.
lol good joke Zelda is awesome and all but it’s only on one console and Batman Arkahm City is on I believe 3+
B:AC isn’t coming to the Wii and there are only three consoles, (not including PCs), so it’s only coming out for two consoles, not 3+. Either way, it will probably sell more than Skyward Sword, (and I’m a huge Zelda fan).
Batman: Arkham City is coming to Wii U, so it is coming to 3 consoles :¨P
and PC does count
but Batman arkahm asylum was Phenomenal. I can’t waith for both that and skyward sword
Where’s Mario 3D land and Mario kart 7? They’re way better than Mario and sonic at THE olympic sh*t and Lego Harry Potter….
Do not underestimate the LEGO videogame franchise. That is some seriously fun gaming right there.
Lego is taking over games.
Soon we will find Lego Star trek and lego Smurfs :(
I kill people.
YAY i finally have something in common with someone O-o
I see dead people.
I eat dead people >.>
I blow up dead people ^_^
What I do to dead people will get me arrested, and cannot be mentioned on this website.
We were being sarcastic. We don’t really do that.
Pon started the replys.
Me too. I was just kidding. *wink*
battlefield is comming out before COD i wonder if itll hurt activisions sales (00)
Nope. Battlefield comes out before COD because people will be bored in the meantime and will actually play it until MW3 comes out lol
Are you saying Battlefield is inferior to Call of Duty? Because if you are, you’re wrong. I don’t care if it’s your opinion; opinions can be wrong. And that one is.
Let’s face it, Battlefield 3 won’t be as big as people think. CoD are games where you simple run and shoot without thinking; that is far more popular than playing alongside your teammates in Battlefield. It may have pretty graphics, but it won’t steal much from CoD.
Btw, I just hate shooters in general. I like Battlefield more though.
After the beta they just released for bf3 there is no way it’s going to sell as well as it would of on consoles….I understand it’s the beta but they don’t have much time to fix the problems b4 release and the graphics aren’t that much better than cod on consoles all the footage they have shown has been on pc…also the gameplay seems to be inferior to call of duty there was way to much hype surrounding this game….replace dead island and deus ex with super Mario 3d land and Mario kart 7 and this list is good.
What people don’t seem to realize is that the Battlefield 3 beta is an older build being used simply for testing servers, load times, and various glitches. The final version will be much better, with destruction turned on (it’s off for the beta, if you didn’t notice), and will definitely dent CoD sales.
First of all not everybody is going to take into consideration it’s an early beta you should check on other sights to see how many ppl canceled there pre orders…..also how much did bbc2 or medal of honor dent cod sales
it wasnt much but you gotta keep in mind that BF:BC2 or MoH didnt have that $1.6 Million tournament backing them up, i guess only time will tell. should be interesting though
not that i agree but i was wondering because EA has killed Activision games before, and bf3 is on the UnrealEngine (last i heard CoD wasnt) and people do care alot about graphics, not to mention itll be out before cod and that tournament EA is hold is sure to attract ALOT of gamers
battlefield 3 isn’t on the unreal. its on the frostbite 2 which is much better than the unreal.
i stand corrected
why would it? i know that call of duty has such a large fanbase that it wouldn’t matter if a game that sopposedly competes with it comes out earlier. Anyways COD puts out the same game every year so that’s why i am much more excited for zelda then cod
Top 5 on that list makes it clear the world is getting stupider by the minute. FPS= First Person Stupider.
Seriously? When did it become fun to brutally murder someone once, and again, on the same game, with the same graphics, again, again, and again?
Society is sick.
i agree, people these days are stupid. the fps genre is so over rated it makes me sick. First there was the over abundance of arcade games, then platformers and now this. i hope it ends soon.
But only the top two are FPS? Assassins creed is great as in batman. I’ma looking forwards to zelda :D
Have you even touched Metroid Prime?
Metroid Prime (series) was so much better than a FPS… I think It get’s it’s own category. ;)
Prime is an FPS, because thats the only camera angle, it belongs in the FPS category, meanwhile cod should me moved to MMOFPS, because that’s all its good for, its single player is garbage.
Actually the prime series was classified as a first person adventure so yea it was given it’s own genre
im sorry but prime actually was a fun single player, cod single player….yea is a sad story….the reason cod is fun is cuz we can play it with millions of people around the world not but because its a good fps.
As opposed to what? Boring RPG’s where you grind the same enemies until your character magically is strong enough to kill slightly stronger enemies wash/rinse/repeat?
I’m not sure why you threw “with the same graphics” in there. Do you expect a games graphics to change mid-game?
What are you even doing on a nintendo sight ugh the stupidness of you comment supports the original commenters point
I 100% agree, the gaming market is oversaturated with bland boring first person shooter titles. I honeslty question the creativity of modern game developers nowadays, nintendo is however diviating from it. so props to miyamoto
I like Team Fortress 2 and I’m looking into buying the Half-Life games, but that’s about it.
This is BS. I mean, kinect sports 2? Man, that device is a joke for motion sensing games. And I really think they missed the games you named. Mario Kart 7 is in my opinion, way lot more popular than those “Mario and Sonic” games. ¬¬
This is BS. I mean, kinect sports 2? Man, that device is a joke for motion sensing games. And I really think they missed the games you named. Mario Kart 7 is in my opinion, way lot more popular than those “Mario and Sonic” games. ¬¬
A complete comment copy? What on earth is going on now?
skyrim is 15th? im sorry that should be top 5…. and yea wheres mario kart!!
If it turns out they’re right about MW3, I’m going to kill something. I’m getting real sick of that tumor on gaming that is the most generic FPS franchise ever conceived constantly getting sales it doesn’t deserve.
I agree, MW3 probably not going to bring all that much into the game, they’ve probably just added fan-service to it. Pretty much the same game, just with new weapons and killstreaks.
I feel like I’d be better off getting Battlefield 3.
See here’s the thing most cod fans don’t want the core of the game to change just new maps new perks new weapons and maybe some other new add ons….I have alot of friends on psn the majority are playing a cod game everytime I boot up the ps3 and it’s been the same for 5 years…when a new game comes out they play that one for a little while but everybody usually goes back to cod….as far as this list goes Zelda or skyrim should be number 1 both those games look fantastic although I have more faith in Zelda because oblivion looked fantastic also and was full of bugs and glitches that they never fixed.
I may not be buying MW3, but it’s certainly not generic. Sure, if you boil it down to its core mechanics it’s the same game. but that can be said of any game franchise. Every game they do change things and try to make it better than the last, and even though it’s clearly a money-grabbing scheme at this point, each game is superior the previous.
In all honesty, they change it more than each Mario Kart release.
Oh, if you think Sonic Generations isn’t gonna be one of the ACTUAl top 20 games for this holiday season then you’re just plain stupid.
*ACTUAL
I’ve seen no hype for that game. I think Sonic fans are finally catching on.
It may do pretty well, but it won’t do anywhere near as good as MW3, Assassins Creed, Arkham City, BF3, etc which will all sell millions and millions of copies.
Except that this is a retrospective. Though the Sonic Cycle has kept a tight grip on the games Sonic Team has released recently, this focuses on experiences fans liked in the first place. And no, this doesn’t control like Sonic 4, so if anyone wanted to ditch the series they should wait until this is out.
Though if you never liked Sonic to begin with, why are you reading this article again?
I’m surprised Skyrim is so low. o_O
Second that. I’ve seen so much online hubub about this game. It’s going to provide huge revenues, which is why they were right to even include it, but its position can’t help but make one feel insulted.
This list is complete bullshit.
i second this
If you read the actual article itself, they explain that they were looking at console games only. That’s why there’s no Mario Kart 7 or SW: Old Republic. As for low ranking of Skyrim, seems kind of low, but remember that a lot of people aren’t into fantasy RPGs. I guess there are a lot more people that prefer racing games, and shooters…
Certainly not surprised that MW3 is up there. Jeez buying black ops was probally the worst game I bought…
Y’all can be mad all you want, but this is fairly accurate, except for Olympic games. And knowing they only used Console games. And kenect sports 2? What the hell? I’m stickin to my EYE-TOY, THE FIRST FAILURE OF IT’S KIND! stupid Microsoft consumers who bought that Kenect crap.
The dumb thing is instead of having Mario and Mario Kart on there they have like 3 games that are already out. Those game have already been purchased by most people so their sales over the holidays won’t be too spectacular. Mario and Kart should be in the top 10 to 12
God can’t believe COD is number 1. So damn sick of first person shooters
I’m starting to become sick to. But there are some good FPS’s coming up in 2012.
Really, We just need to cut down on FPS’s just a bit. Thats the only games these days.
leaving off mario kart and super mario was dumb. but its good to see zelda so high up.
having madden so high up is very very retarded. having any of those sports games on there is retarded.
I wouldn’t necessarily say having a sports game on there is bad. However, I am surprised that Madden 12 is above Skyward Sword.
True.
Best selling game in the UK currently is Fifa Soccer 12.
I’m so sick of Virtual Sport games being number 1 in charts in any country, UK is worst with Shovel-ware being number one as Zumba was one for 16 weeks in a row recently.
Im not surprised zelda isnt in the top 5. None have ever been as good as Ocarina of Time even with all of the new technology (happy face) O-o
I hope its still a good game tho. there not usually bad, but just not as good
where on earth is mario kart 7?!
I do not believe this list, good sir!
What about Solatorobo, Professor Layton, and Kirby? Ignorance!
People fear change and most gamers adhere to that saying like superglue. I love Kirby, but the games are simplistic and it will probably receive moderate to good sales figures; it will never be able to compete with Modern Warfare, which has come out with “new” content every other month or something. That’s ultimately a game series’ downfall, not just Kirby, or even Zelda for that matter. That long waiting period between really good games that define an age let’s the average money maker games settle in and take root.
Is November 20th in the Holiday Season? If so, did they take into account that Skyward Sword has more pre-orders around the world than any other game? Or, is this just an American list?
Nielsen don’t know gaming.
Hey, and Sonic Generations!?
I agree, I am SUPER hyped for Sonic Genereations
skyward sword on the 6th place? bitch please that game should be the first in the list but nooooo people are just interested on that shitty COD which by the way the developers of the game said that cod had 2 years of life left thanks god
I agree. I’m excited for COD but seriously.
WHY ON EARTH IS SKYWARD SWORD ONLY 6TH!?
it should seriously be 1st i mean is the first one on the preorders list everywhere in fact i think stores alredy sold out of preorders for skyward sword
This looks like a console-specific list. No handhelds or PC-only games included. Crisis averted.
Eh, MW3? Screw that. But if there’s one FPS I would have expected to see up here, I’d think Halo Anniversary was going to be here, since Halo does have better game play than CoD. Cause really, how is Kinect Sports and Madden on their but not Halo?
Well at least we know what people have on there mind. Nielsen is the best at any kind of survey.
Okay wait a minute I could eliminate 10 of those games and the facts that niether mario 3d land, or mario kart is on this it makes this completly false. Those games will sell 10-15 million.
Keep in mind that Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 are only not listed because the survey only covers home console games, it doesn’t cover anything on the PSP or original DS either. Stupid decision, but explains their non presence here.
But I doubt most of those games will do better than Zelda. Modern Warfare probably, but I honestly expect it to outsell about half the list.
Oh, and it’s a bit skewed because they’re treating the internet as representative of the general population or which games will do well. Bad idea that, people on internet forums and gaming sites are a fairly small part of the gaming population.
Oh your right man. At first I though it was that they just kept it out but when you look at it all these games are for home consules.
How about my list:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
2. Super Mario 3D Land
3. Kirby Return to Dreamland
4. Mario Kart 7
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
6. Battlefield 3
7. Batman Arkham City
8. Gears of War 3
9. Resistance 3
10. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
11. Uncharted 3
12. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
13. Dead Island
14. Mario & Sonic at the London Olympic Games 2012
15. Madden NFL 12
so ppl prefer cod over, BF3, batman, SS, Skyrim, and U3? never new ppl liked arcade shooters over REAL games, sigh..-_-
i know right, where is this world going to. oh and what a coincidence, all those games you just said are the games i really want lol.
There’s Kinect Sports Season 2 on there but no Mario Kart 7 or Super Mario 3D Land? Nonsense!
I smell…. corruption.
Someone paid them for this.
Stop thinking sales are correlated with game quality. They’re more correlated with gamers’ opinions of the games, not the game quality itself.
the list (at least in terms of sales not gameplay) is sort of accurate because of cod has tons of fans but is the same game over and over except some of the games should be higher / on the list