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Alexios · Oct 10, 2011

How about adding a parenthesis with what kind of project each game is, for whatever ignorant to the subject user may read this and go all "lol, just a few hundred thousand sales is considered good on PC?!" or something, oblivious to the fact it all went straight to one or a handful of developers' pockets because it's some smaller indie's project?

Galactic Civilizations II had sold 300,000 by March 2008.

Sins of a Solar Empire had sold 500,000 by September 2008.

Both games on a budget of less than $1,000,000 and in a niche genre, turn based and real time 4X strategy.

Found via wikipedia, sometimes it has good links to the sources for the sales information so check that for whatever notable PC releases you may recall, just in case.

sp3000 · Oct 10, 2011

It's hilarious that Crytek whined about the sales numbers as justification for turning Crysis 2 into a port when they sold 3 million. I don't think the budget was that high for the original, they made a giant profit and still complain.

angular graphics · Oct 10, 2011

Nice thread, completely missed it!

L4D franchise it's 5 million PC copies vs 6 million 360 copies according to my very simple calculations as explained here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=31636301&postcount=533

(Basically on May they said L4D1&2 sold 3+3=6 million units on 360, and on August they said total sold units are 11 million, so 11-6=5)

The Orange Box at least 1.5 million units: http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/3...illion-Console-Sales-Significantly-More-On-PC

Now here's the thing, Portal 1 not counting Steam sales, so talking about PS360+XBLA+PC retail here, sold 4 million units. http://www.vg247.com/2011/04/20/portal-has-sold-nearly-4m-steam-sales-not-included/

Since The Orange Box was selling "significantly better on PC", I'd say it's only logical to conclude that Portal PC has sold more than 4 million units. But no hard numbers about that.

Gmod over 1 million copies: http://www.garrysmod.com/2011/07/26/over-1000000-sold/

angular graphics · Oct 10, 2011

Warhammer 40k franchise: 6.5 million units http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/27/thq-reports-net-sales-of-195-2-million-for-q1-fy12/

angular graphics · Oct 10, 2011

By June 2008 BioShock had sold 1 million PC units according to nvidia: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/nvidias-roy-taylor-interview?page=2

In the same month 2K announced they had shipped 2.2 million units in total (PC + 360): http://ir.take2games.com/External.F...EcjdXvnkuQsRd4z1F+6UjdeP00J7LAY65LCFFFXhNWg==

For Witcher 2 in September they said: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/27/which-witcher-is-the-witcher-2-2-0/

"As far as how we feel about the sales results, The Witcher 2 is selling slightly better than expected (as of today, around one million units sold through worldwide). Our goal was to generate 30% better sales than The Witcher, and were achieving that."

Vulcano's assistant · Oct 10, 2011

sp3000 said:
It's hilarious that Crytek whined about the sales numbers as justification for turning Crysis 2 into a port when they sold 3 million. I don't think the budget was that high for the original, they made a giant profit and still complain.

Crytek is apparently a huge studio, maybe they are earning funds from somewhere else and see their sales small by comparison.

angular graphics · Oct 10, 2011

sp3000 said:
It's hilarious that Crytek whined about the sales numbers as justification for turning Crysis 2 into a port when they sold 3 million. I don't think the budget was that high for the original, they made a giant profit and still complain.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/899/899976p1.html

CEO and President of game developer Crytek said Crysis cost 15 million Euros (22 million USD) to develop during a panel about the future of gaming graphics at the Games Convention Developers Conference in Leipzig, Germany. Yet despite the cost, Yerli maintained the game was profitable, adding, "if it wasn't profitable I wouldn't be able to stand here."

It probably includes the cost of developing the engine as well.

Joseph Merrick · Oct 10, 2011

Vulcano's assistant said:
Crytek is apparently a huge studio, maybe they are earning funds from somewhere else and see their sales small by comparison.

crytek upgraded (kiev), started (budapest) and bought (black sea, free radical), that's four full studios, after crysis1. over 300 people from what I can tell. again, after crysis. and that's in addition to the over 100 people at the frankfurt studio. they also started up a thing in seoul, although I'm not sure if it's a full studio or just an office.

gabbo · Oct 10, 2011

Opiate said:
<words>

I don't know about Take Two or Activision, but EA should be trying to grab that kind of profit like it's on fire the way they've hemorrhaged money the last few years.

Vampire On Titus · Oct 10, 2011

angular graphics said:
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/899/899976p1.html

It probably includes the cost of developing the engine as well.

Wasn't it that first week sales were lower and early on they made a statement complaining? Then like a month or 2 later it had sold a million units. I think the complaints were only in the early goings.

Grayman · Oct 10, 2011

angular graphics said:
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/899/899976p1.html

It probably includes the cost of developing the engine as well.

Have they also given any cost figures on Warhead? It may have not sold as much but as an expansion pack sequel it must have printed money.

Grayman · Oct 10, 2011

amitlu said:
So long as Valve keeps a tight lid on Steam sales stats, these will always be incomplete.

For some games the sales will be complete at that date as they come straight from the developers. For games that are digital only these numbers are more accurate than NPD, Famitsu, and Media Create

angular graphics · Oct 10, 2011

EchosMyron1 said:
Wasn't it that first week sales were lower and early on they made a statement complaining? Then like a month or 2 later it had sold a million units. I think the complaints were only in the early goings.

Pretty much, that's what happened with the sales but they never stopped complaining, initially they were some reports that it bombed but 2 months later EA announces it has actually exceeded their expectations and sold 1 million units. On the other hand Yerli, 5 months after its release (so by then sales had already reached and exceeded the 1 million units), says he's done with PC exclusives that get pirated to hell and back, and if the game was on a console it would sell 4-5 times more units (so 8-10 million units on the two consoles?! L O L) and thus their future games are going to multiplatform. He later said it sold good and made them profit, but it wasn't what they had hoped for, and that "for one sale there are 15 to 20 pirates and pirate versions, and that's a big shame for the PC industry", so the dude was clearly dreaming that his game would sell as good as Call of Duty 4: MW on just one platform...

Recently he said the same things about Crysis 2 (that has shipped 3 million units), that sales were good, but it's not the breakthrough the studio had hoped for, and they are still looking for that..

Grayman said:
Have they also given any cost figures on Warhead? It may have not sold as much but as an expansion pack sequel it must have printed money.

No, they didn't, but same engine + same assets = it printed money as you said.

Vampire On Titus · Oct 11, 2011

angular graphics said:
Pretty much, that's what happened with the sales but they never stopped complaining, initially they were some reports that it bombed but 2 months later EA announces it has actually exceeded their expectations and sold 1 million units. On the other hand Yerli, 5 months after its release (so by then sales had already reached and exceeded the 1 million units), says he's done with PC exclusives that get pirated to hell and back, and if the game was on a console it would sell 4-5 times more units (so 8-10 million units on the two consoles?! L O L) and thus their future games are going to multiplatform. He later said it sold good and made them profit, but it wasn't what they had hoped for, and that "for one sale there are 15 to 20 pirates and pirate versions, and that's a big shame for the PC industry", so the dude was clearly dreaming that his game would sell as good as Call of Duty 4: MW on just one platform...

Recently he said the same things about Crysis 2 (that has shipped 3 million units), that sales were good, but it's not the breakthrough the studio had hoped for, and they are still looking for that..

Wow, I didn't know he still complained after the 1m mark was broken, geeze. I mean not that I know the ins and outs of Crytek's financial situation, but making a profit and selling several million units with each release doesn't seem like a bad situation for them.

Also Proun "Over 250,000" and profit breakdowns for the "Pay what you want" model they (he) used. Source

Saty · Oct 11, 2011

Big update to the OP that includes most the games on this wiki page. I included most of the games that their source was still working and that i could discern the PC as the main platform.

I'll try to update the data given in this page later.

I also found a US Top PC games from 1993 to 1999. I may include it later:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/071/071728p1.html

And, EDGE feature of the 100 best-selling pc games since 2000 up to 2006. U.S. retail data only which i may use later as well:
http://www.next-gen.biz/features/top-100-pc-games-21st-century

(Edge has s similar article for console games as well).

angular graphics · Oct 11, 2011

Red Orchestra: 400k http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9727912&postcount=1

If you are interested in doing a bonus section with comments from devs that are satisfied with how their PC games/PC versions sold, there you go:

Shogun 2 (600k according to the OP): http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-17-creative-assembly-making-new-total-war

"It's doing fab," beamed Simpson. "We're 90 per cent Metacritic, which is exactly where we wanted to hit, and it's selling great."

"The original Shogun sold more copies in the second three years of its existence than it did in its first three years. They sell for ages. OK, they're not all at full price, but comparing one with another..."

"It's a really complex question," Heaton offered, "because Total War games have a really long tail."

Killing Floor: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25595

Three years and two games later, we've built our company in large part on top of selling our games on Steam. We started out with just a couple of people making games in a small room. Now weve built our company up to fifteen people, recently nearly doubling our staff and office space, largely thanks to the success our game Killing Floor has had on Steam.

Trine: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/5826/postmortem_frozenbytes_trine.php?page=6

Thanks guys. I probably could've deleted the word 'reasonable' from the last paragraph, the sales have been good. We were probably working on some contracts and were too accustomed to adding reasonable everywhere. Trine is making profit, it surpassed the break-even point a while ago. This is in many ways thanks to Steam where we self-published Trine. If all goes to plan, we should be able to complete our two current projects without many financial issues (I dare not say 'any', heh - our ever-growing ambition may cause some problems down the line). We'll see, exciting times ahead.

The Ball: http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showpost.php?p=679985&postcount=2

We can't (and won't) give out sales figures. But, yes, it has made a profit for us - cash starting to flow through to Teotl Sold very well in the Steam Christmas sale, happily.

Borderlands: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=23965862#item_23965862

oh it sold a heck of a lot on pc and it was great. was apologizing for my mistake is all... not the game

Metro 2033: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/05/metro-2033-has-been-very-profitable-for-thq-ceo-says/

"It's a very profitable title for us," Farrell said, without disclosing a number.

Farrell did reveal that Europe has accounted for roughly two-thirds of Metro 2033 sales, as forecast by the publisher, with North America buying up the remaining units sold. "A lot of the sales were done on PC," he added, "and a lot of the sales were also done through digital mechanisms that don't get captured by any service."

Fallout: New Vegas: http://bethsoft.com/eng/news/pressrelease_110810.html

Five million units of Fallout: New Vegas were shipped worldwide for the Xbox 360®video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows®, with a heavy volume of digital downloads, representing well over $300 million in retail sales.

ArmA 2: http://www.themysteryexaminer.com/e...-arma-2/bohemia-interactive-interview-arma-2/

ARMA 2 definitely is a success in terms of sales. It seems that despite the world economical crisis, Bohemia Interactive can again stand on its own feet for a while and focus on game development without having to worry about satisfying a bottom line or meeting financial targets, in this day and age thats pretty rare, but one could say it reaffirms our ambitious development philosophy as not being completely cuckoo!

Some additional comments:

A sequel to Psychonauts is possible thanks to Steam and piracy (lol): http://www.computerandvideogames.com/275156/psychonauts-2-tim-schafer-is-ready-to-do-it/

"Over the years it's gotten into the hands of a lot of people, through being two dollars on Steam for a while, and being pirated.

"So it's gotten out there. So if all these people were going to buy the sequel it would be a big hit," added Schafer.

SEGA defends PC sales: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sega-pc-sales-are-stronger-than-reported

The PC market is third in terms of its year-on-year performance with a decline of 26 per cent, but this doesnt really reflect the full picture, said Clark.

The PC digital download business is now a viable sector but somewhat invisible as its not yet covered by Chart-Track. The PC market overall is actually performing much better than is currently reported and remains a vital and strong sector to be involved in.

THQ promises to bring every game that makes sense to the PC which is a very important platform and (Steam) cannot be ignored: http://www.shacknews.com/article/66318/danny-bilson-interview-on-homefront

Shacknews: You division--"core" games--focuses on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...

Danny Bilson: And PC. PC is really important to me.

Shacknews: With Steam, the recent "big push" on that distribution platform has been the Mac. Does THQ want to bring its library to that platform?

Danny Bilson: If it makes sense. I mean, we want to put the titles on as many platforms as possible and what I love about PC is we control our own destiny there. There are a zillion PC's out there--I grew up as a PC gamer and I still enjoy playing on my PC, when I can--and you're going to see every single title from [the Core group at THQ] that makes sense, on PC. I mean, almost every one. The only ones that are not going on PC are ones that really don't make any sense at all.

You're going to see us announcing--I mean, MX vs. ATV Reflix is going to be coming out on PC in a few weeks, we just put out Darksiders on PC. You're going to see us putting out almost every, single console title we can on PC to expand out audience and expand the customer base, ultimately. Revenue. And it's the forefront of digital sales. You deal with these games on PC, right? It's fantastic that way.

Shacknews: Steam recently announced its membership numbers have jumped to 30 million users.

Danny Bilson: Yeah. It's like iTunes. It can't be ignored and we won't ignore it.

fizzelopeguss · Oct 11, 2011

Saty · Oct 14, 2011

Added selected titles from the NA lists i posted before. Next update will have to be in a new post, reached the character limit. I will probably need to cut the OP someway.

I'm thinking maybe cutting the list and arranging future updates by release periods (90's, 00's, 2010+) and not alphabetically.

Vampire On Titus · Oct 15, 2011

Saty said:
Added selected titles from the NA lists i posted before. Next update will have to be in a new post, reached the character limit. I will probably need to cut the OP someway.

I'm thinking maybe cutting the list and arranging future updates by release periods (90's, 00's, 2010+) and not alphabetically.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Great job on the thread, btw.

Fafalada · Oct 15, 2011

Opiate said:
1) AAA games drive the most revenue -- even if they do not drive the most profit

But the top game for respective 'big'-publishers in that bracket DOES drive the most revenue and profit (by a large margin too). And except for T2, they all have a yearly title that takes that spot as well.

Saty · Oct 15, 2011

2000-2009 Figures:

Drkirby · Oct 15, 2011

I really wouldn't count Minecraft as a 2009 game, all that was out at that time was creative.

Saty · Oct 15, 2011

1990-1999 Figures:

Age of Empires

Release Date: October 1997
Latest Figure: 3 Million copies (March 2000)
Sales History: N\A
Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome (Exp. Pack)

Release Date: October 1998
Latest Figure: 1 Million copies (March 2000)
Sales History: N\A
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

Release Date: September 1999
Latest Figure: 2 Million copies (January 2000)
Sales History: N\A
ANNO 1602

Release Date: September 1998
Latest Figure: 2.5 Million copies (November 2002)
Sales History: N\A
Battlefield 1942

Release Date: September 2002
Latest Figure: 2.47 Million copies (June 2006)
Sales History: N\A
Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Release Date: October 1996
Latest Figure: 3 Million (April 2000)
Sales History: N\A
Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Release Date: August 1999
Latest Figure: 1.5 Million copies (April 2000)
Sales History: N\A
Diablo

Release Date: November 1996
Latest Figure: 2.5 Million copies (August 2001)
Sales History: N\A
Hidden & Dangerous

Release Date: July 1999
Latest Figure: 1 Million copies (November 2007)
Sales History: N\A
Myst

Release Date: September 1993
Latest Figure: 4.2 Million copies (NA only, September 1999)
Sales History: N\A
Railroad Tycoon II

Release Date: November 1998
Latest Figure: 1 Million copies (November 2007)
Sales History: N\A
RollerCoaster Tycoon + 2 Expansions

Release Date: March 1999
Latest Figure: 4 Million copies (NA only, May 2002)
Sales History: N\A
SimCity 3000 + SimCity 3000 Unlimited (re-release)

Release Date: January 1999 \ May 2000
Latest Figure: 5 Million copies (November 2007)
Sales History: N\A
StarCraft

Release Date: March 1998
Latest Figure: 11 Million copies (February 2009)
Sales history: N\A
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

Release Date: December 1995
Latest Figure: 2 Million copies (October 1999)
Sales History: N\A

Saty · Oct 15, 2011

I can switch Minecraft.

Anyhow, as you see, i made 3 separte lists. The one in the OP is for games released in 2010 and later. It also includes general franchise numbers.

King Boo · Oct 15, 2011

someone should add the heroes of might and magic series to the list. as well as dark messiah. i hope dm did well, i would like another game like that in the future with better graphics, more abilities, and tons more things to do.

Darklord · Oct 15, 2011

Saty said:
[*]Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Release Date: July 2002
Latest Figure: 3 Million copies (August 2003)
Sales History: N\A

They shipped 4.5 million at launch so they'd have definitely sold at least that many.

Saty · Nov 4, 2011

Adding to OP the sales of Dungeon Defenders, as brought from the specific thread:

Twain Harte, CA November 2 Trendy Entertainment, D3Publisher and Reverb Publishing announced today that its recently released action/tower defense/RPG mash-up Dungeon Defenders , with 200,000 units sold on PC alone, is a runaway success with over 250,000 sales total on all three platforms Steam, Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation® Network.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/press...Releases_Console_Community_Event_Schedule.php

dLMN8R · Nov 4, 2011

Holy shit! I knew it must be successful since the concurrent numbers were so high, but that's damned impressive.

KKRT00 · Nov 11, 2011

http://www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Autorzy-Wiedzmina-nie-zwalniaja-tempa-2435689.html
In this article CDPR said that 20% of global sales are digital, so with info about 250k sold digitally, we know that global sales are around 1.25m for The Witcher 2.

kswiston · Nov 11, 2011

I wish Blizzard released updated LTDs. We have Diablo II sales from the first few months, but that game was a pretty consistent seller for close to a decade. I would imagine that between Diablo II and LOD they are near 10M by now.

Saty · Nov 11, 2011

KKRT00 said:
http://www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Autorzy-Wiedzmina-nie-zwalniaja-tempa-2435689.html
In this article CDPR said that 20% of global sales are digital, so with info about 250k sold digitally, we know that global sales are around 1.25m for The Witcher 2.

Thanks. Any chance for the article's translation?

KKRT00 · Nov 11, 2011

Saty said:
Thanks. Any chance for the article's translation?

There not really many interesting information there, they are talking about lawsuit with Namco, but CDPR really dont tell anything there, they said that there will be investors conference in 6 days where they show their plan for next 4 years, they talk a little about polish market and RPG production [that it takes average 3 years for big title] and so on.
Nothing really 'groundbreaking'

Vampire On Titus · Nov 11, 2011

KKRT00 said:
http://www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Autorzy-Wiedzmina-nie-zwalniaja-tempa-2435689.html
In this article CDPR said that 20% of global sales are digital, so with info about 250k sold digitally, we know that global sales are around 1.25m for The Witcher 2.

Nice! In just a matter of month's too. That's awesome.

guidestone · Nov 14, 2011

sp3000 said:
It's hilarious that Crytek whined about the sales numbers as justification for turning Crysis 2 into a port when they sold 3 million. I don't think the budget was that high for the original, they made a giant profit and still complain.

Piracy will always be used as a scapegoat if there's an opportunity for it because they don't have the balls to just say the "no shit" thing that they could make more money on 3 platforms compared to one. And why let "creative expression" get you in the way of that? lol

I'd like to know why they devs/pubs don't want to come open like that? To hide incompetence from the shareholders?

Ionic · Nov 22, 2011

The Breath of Death/Cthulhu Saves the World pack has sold over 100,000 copies on Steam.

http://zeboyd.com/2011/11/21/cthulh...100000-copies-on-steam-in-less-than-4-months/

HP_Wuvcraft · Nov 22, 2011

Dude. I would have thought the Baldur's Gate series would have been so much higher.

Saty · Nov 23, 2011

Added Terraria milestone back from July.
(http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/terraria-sales-soar-to-new-heights.47415/)

crimsonheadGCN · Nov 27, 2011

Age of Empires series has sold over 20 million units:

http://ageofempires3.filefront.com/news/Bruce_Shelley_Blog_Update;39633

Terraria has sold over a million:

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/63090/Terraria-Update-Trailer-Reveals-Over-1-Million-Copies-Sold

Saty · Nov 29, 2011

Added Frozen Synapse: http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/11/frozen-synapse-a-business-mini-postmortem/
Updated Witcher 1: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/29/i...tcher-2-piracy-why-drms-still-not-worth-it/2/

angular graphics · Nov 29, 2011

Saty said:
Added Frozen Synapse: http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/11/frozen-synapse-a-business-mini-postmortem/

Wait a minute.. They say:

"Over 300k units sold since May 2011 (across all distributors, majority sold at a discount)"

and according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humble_Indie_Bundle#List_of_games_offered

there were 231,797 Frozen Synapse Humble Bundles sold.

So they only sold ~70k non-HIB copies?

dLMN8R · Dec 31, 2011

You can add Bastion to the list with the number of 300,000 on PC

(as noted here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=457261)

If you do the math, it's at 300,252 now!

guidestone · Dec 31, 2011

Is that 600k Shogun 2 number shipped to retail or total with DD?

Fredescu · Dec 31, 2011

guidestone said:
Is that 600k Shogun 2 number shipped to retail or total with DD?

The source is a public company's financial reporting. It almost certainly includes DD.

Vampire On Titus · Jan 28, 2012

Fredescu said:
The source is a public company's financial reporting. It almost certainly includes DD.

The numbers aren't current though.

Also, Binding of Issac 450k~ Source!

Saty · Jan 29, 2012

Thanks. Added to OP.

Glaurungr · Feb 6, 2012

Are you adding MMO sales? If so, here are som figures:

Star Wars: The Old Republic 2 million (February, 2012)
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning 1 200 000 (October, 2008)
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 3 500 000 (March, 2007)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King 2 800 000 (November, 2008)
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm 4 700 000 (January, 2011)

Edit:

Sanctum has apparently sold 300 000 on Steam.

Fare Godmace · Feb 7, 2012

Not exactly sales figures, but I thought it was interesting and I didn't see a topic about it: 95% of Paradox's Revenue Is From Digital Distribution.

Glaurungr · Feb 14, 2012

Killing Floor has sold 1 million copies.

Gully State · Feb 14, 2012

So call me crazy, but I'm taking a quick glance at the sales numbers here and it seems to me that PC gaming never really died but rather the market never really grew to COD type numbers.

jim-jam bongs · Feb 14, 2012

Gully State said:
So call me crazy, but I'm taking a quick glance at the sales numbers here and it seems to me that PC gaming never really died but rather the market never really grew to COD type numbers.

It's that and the fact that PC sales are long-tail. Most companies involved in gaming stop paying attention after the first month because of how hype- and marketing-driven the console space is.

Support NeoGAF

The Comprehensive PC Games Sales Figures Thread.

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