Major Nelson has revealed the top games played by Xbox Live users in 2011, as well as the top selling games Xbox Live Arcade and Indie Games of last year. Some of the games might surprise you, others, probably not so much. Most notably, five of the seven Call of Duty games released this console generation on the Xbox 360 make the top 20, likely surprising no one. Check the full list after the jump!
The top 360 Xbox Live titles, based on unique users this year were:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Modern Warfare 2
- Halo: Reach
- Battlefield 3
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Gears of War 3
- FIFA 12
- FIFA 11
- Madden 12
- GTA IV
- NBA 2k11
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- Call of Duty 4
- Battlefield 3 (Beta)
- Halo 3
- Gears of War 2
- Forza Motorsport 4
- Red Dead Redemption
- Call of Duty: World at War
No huge surprises on that list. Black Ops is higher than Modern Warfare 3 because it was out for much longer, though I'm sure Modern Warfare 3 will overtake that soon. The only single player game on the list was Skyrim, but that shouldn't be a surprise. The most amusing thing on the list is that the Battlefield 3 Beta was listed. The oldest game on the list was Halo 3, closely followed by Call of Duty 4, both from 2007.
Major Nelson also revealed the most purchased full-downloads of Xbox Live Arcade titles. This list is a bit more surprising
- Pinball FX2
- Full House Poker
- Castle Crashers
- Fruit Ninja Kinect
- From Dust
- Trials HD
- Magic the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012
- Dead Rising 2: Case West
- Torchlight
- Toy Soldiers: Cold War
- Plants vs. Zombies
- Portal: Still Alive
- Bastion
- Limbo
- Game Room
- Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
- Peggle
- Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale
- Battlefield 1943
- Beyond Good & Evil HD
The surprises for me are just the insane mix of games, new and old, on that list, as well as their variety. It really speaks strongly of the excellent mix of games that digital platforms like Live can provide. I also have to say how happy I am to see that Beyond Good & Evil HD made the list. It got overlooked the first time, but hopefully this will spur Ubisoft to continue to work on the sequel. Seeing Bastion on the list is also refreshing.
Finally, Major Nelson also revealed the top 20 Xbox Live Indie Titles for the past year. The top game should surprise no one really.
- FortressCraft: Chapter 1
- Total Miner: Forge
- The Impossible Game
- Avatar Pinball
- Toy Stunt Bike
- CastleMiner Z
- I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1
- Avatar Legends
- CastleMiner
- Miner Dig Deep
- Avatar Laser Wars
- Bird Assassin
- Voice Changer 360
- Nuclear Wasteland
- Avatar Karting
- Zombie Estate
- Avatar Drop
- Baby Maker Extreme 2
- College Lacrosse 2011
- The $1 Zombie Game
Certainly some interesting titles in there, namely an awful lot of MineCraft clones. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a bit revealing of the indie scene on the Xbox 360. Still, at least these games are getting people into development, and some of the games are supposed to actually be pretty good. As silly as its name is, I've heard nothing but good things about I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1, and Baby Maker Extreme 2 certainly sounds like it has the possibility of being hilarious.
So overall, looks like Live and the Xbox 360 had a pretty good year. Here's looking forward to 2012 and seeing if anything can derail the major franchises on Live, or if there will be any big surprises from the Arcade, like Bastion was.