According to a recent report by the Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE), Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade generated $103.4 million in 2009. This is a 34 percent increase from the previous year.
This could be in part from the rise in price of the average arcade game, which went from $8.33 to $9.12. Most best-sellers for the service were up around the $15 mark.
Some of the big name arcade games sold extremely well, with Castle Crashers at over 1 million copies sold over the entire year and EA and DICE’s Battlefield 1943 estimated at over 800,000 units sold. Electronic Arts had announced in July that the game was the fastest-selling game to date on Xbox Live.
Events such as the Summer of the Arcade also helped raise sales for the service. That promotion in particular helped bring about a 200 percent increase in sales during July and August.
However, the report also showed that the average spending for an Xbox Live user dropped to $2.79 this year. But Microsoft is expecting Project Natal to improve on that in 2010.
FADE also released its estimated top ten Xbox Live Arcade games based on revenue. The list can be found below.
Estimated Top Titles by Revenue, 2009 (Average Price)
* Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) – $12.5 million ($15.00)
* Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) – $7.3 million ($15.00)
* Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) – $7.1 million ($15.00)
* Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment / Epic Games) – $6.1 million ($14.38)
* Family Game Night (Hasbro) – $4.2 million ($9.53)
* Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom) – $4.2 million ($15.00)
* Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) – $2.8 million ($10.00)
* Worms 2 (Team 17) – $1.8 million ($10.00)
* Peggle (PopCap Games) – $1.8 million ($8.86)
* Turtles in Time: Reshelled (Ubisoft Singapore) – $1.7 million ($10.00)
[CVG]
