The Top 15 Best-Selling PC Games Of All Time

[Guest]

Seems pretty on, Sims definitely out sold in retail, but that was back in the day when games came on optical plastic discs that light had to hit and bounce back and then decode.

 

[idgarad]

To be honest they need to re-run this story with a % of titles shipped that year to keep the sales numbers relative. If memory serves me Ultima 7 The Black Gate might actually be in the top 10 given it's sales as a % of total titles shipped that year (I want to say they had 15% of the volume when it launched.)

In short: Re-evaluate adjusting for the size of the video game market at the time. Selling 1 million copies in 1980 versus 1 million copies in 2012 is very, very different.

 

[f-14]

#7: Battlefield 3

Sold: At Least 5 Million

4.5 million of those are console sales right?
cataclysm? really -1 for an expansion pack.
you're missing well over 10 games and i seem to recall blizzard stating they had sold 4 million copies of diablo 2 in the first month, i'm almost positive i read that on toms at the time.
i know unreal tournament and unreal 2 sold over 3 million copies also esp since they were game of the year.
i'm pretty sure you should be checking the game of the year awards PC magazines for numbers sold.
i remember decent being on every computer sold back in the late 90's

 

[f-14]

Descent*

 

[jaguarmatt]

I find it pretty cool that I bought most of these titles when they first released, and still have them today. Counterstrike, Portal 2, World of Warcraft, Sims, Sims 2, SimCity3000, Minecraft and Battlefield 3 are all titles that I own, so I have more than half of the games that were mentioned! Thanks for making me realize how quickly I'm aging...... =P

 

[ringzero]

[citation]There was no digital distribution for any of the games up until Cataclysm.[/citation]

I bought Burning Crusade as a digital download within two months after its initial release.

 

[slabbo]

how are they calculating WoW Cata sales? how can it have only sold 4.7 million when there are 10-12 million subscribers still playing that game. Unless they are still playing and paying monthly fees with out the newest expansion, which would seem like an even bigger waste of money to me. I doubt 6-8 million are only playing the free to play 20th level cap version either. Are they not counting worldwide sales numbers, and only North America numbers?

 

[xerroz]

[citation][nom]jktz122[/nom]whatever happened to the civilization series?[/citation]
Was wondering this as well. Pretty much all the Civ games have sold more than 4 million copies each

 

[Khimera2000]

[citation][nom]youssef 2010[/nom]PLEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEE, get rid of the read more button[/citation]

Agree 100%, or at least make it useful. I want a full page, not 5 lines when I click read more, its really getting annoying to click on the button only to find 3 extra lines. Is that peace of advertisement really so important that you have to insist on making us click right above it for ever single slide?

It's so annoying that as things stand I don't even bother to look at what the advertisements about. get rid of the "Read More" and I might feel inclined to actually try out one of those links once and a while.

Just my two cents.

loved the list by the way. Although it might not be 100% accurate, it still brought back some old memories. Is there any chance that there might be an article in the future about retro games... I still remember the original Donkey Kong, and seeing my dad hurl a broken PacMan cartage clear across the room after an hour of trying to get it to work. (we got a new one that day)

 

[coldtortilla]

I recall that COD MW3 sold better than BF3 so idk what is up this top 15.

 

[Cy-Kill]

Wolfenstein was not the original FPS, there were FPS before it ever came out!

 

[the_brute]

I was going to ask about AoE II. Then I realized of the 60-80 people I played LAN with almost all the time were bought (not knowly at the time) counterfit. So I just wonder how many thousands more were reported as "destroyed or damaged" but still sold. This was bought in a large city at several well known places. I bought mine from Walmart 6 months after it was released. The MSN Zone emailed me about 2 years later telling me I had a marked destroyed copy from one of Microsofts warehouses.

 

[superflykicks03]

AoE II def should be on the list. Hell, they still sell it retail at walmart.

 

[Guest]

NO CRISIS, CRISIS 2, NFS, Call of Duty...

 

[benjamin pearcy]

[citation][nom]cknobman[/nom]This article is an epic fail for the simple fact that you listed Diablo II with 4 million copies sold when I bought a retail box that stated right on the front "Over 5 million copies sold"LOL do better research next time.[/citation]

damn right! if they still sell it now, i don't hesitate to buy it again, mine broke!

 

[trumpstyle]

Your source for battlefield 3 is a FORECAST, not a sale number. I could not find any number even close to 5 million copies for battlefield 3. The only thing I found was 1.8 million copies and that is from vgchartz.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]De5_roy[/nom]Chuck Norris does not play w.o.w. he just stares at the monitor and the enemy gets instantly destroyed.[/citation]
Naaa.. he just stares at the screen while his remaining few brain cells melt away.

 

[Guest]

I can't remember the last time I bought a PC game from a store.

 

[snurp85]

i suppose best selling doesnt necessarily mean best games.... X-com

 

[wooodoggies]

PRETTY STUPID LIST, I HATE COD NOW BUT WHERE IS IT?

 

[zak_mckraken]

There's a lot of arguing going on for nothing. They should simple rename the article to : The Top 15 Best-Selling Retail-box PC Games Of All Time that we are aware of... kinda.

 

[avalach21]

There's no way this list is correct. Warcraft 3 surely sold over 4 million copies. What about C & C Red alert? Wasn't that in the Guiness Book of world records?

 

[Guest]

I know everyone's already pointed out that the WoW numbers are wrong, but seriously, why were such ridiculous numbers even printed?
Current subscribers are around 10 million, which includes the original game +3 expansions.
I've heard peak subs were around 20 million.
try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#PC for another opinion, which still doesn't include WoW or digital sales.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I know everyone's already pointed out that the WoW numbers are wrong, but seriously, why were such ridiculous numbers even printed?
Current subscribers are around 10 million, which includes the original game +3 expansions.
I've heard peak subs were around 20 million.
try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#PC for another opinion, which still doesn't include WoW or digital sales.

This is all based on numbers that are available. There are many methods, such as DD, that are not accounted for, and for a lot of current VALVe ttile, Steam sales outnumber retail sales.

Then you have to remember that WoW can be installed on multiple PCs with one install. You cannot count subscribers as they do not mean that 20 million copies sold retail, it means they could have downloaded it or got it from a friend.

 

[jjack339]

this article is way off. For one Diablo II has sold over 7 million. Also WOW: CATA Sold 4 million its 1st week.... kinda doupt that is the total. not to mention Vanilla Wow should be higher considering you need vanilla to play Cata. If you guys want gaming sales data for free go to vgchartz.com.