Operation Backlog Completion 2024
Aug 042014
 

If you ask me, the #1 best-selling game right now should be Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. A crossover between two of my favorite series, with what looks like an exciting storyline and great features–what could be better than that? If you haven’t ordered it, you should.

But no, this isn’t another Professor Layton/Ace Attorney post, although I certainly make enough of those. This time, I’m going to take a look at what the best-selling games really are right now.

Now, I like to think I’m in touch with the mainstream gaming market. On the other hand, I play Halo for the story, enjoyed Amy, and pre-ordered a pigeon dating sim. Don’t worry. I’ll review it.

So let’s take a look at Amazon’s video games Best Sellers list and see what the majority of gamers are buying today.

Of the top 20 best sellers… only 11 are actually games. Let’s get the non-game items out of the way first. The top 3 best sellers are all PSN gift cards, for various amounts, with an Xbox gift card in 5th place. A 3-month Xbox Live Gold membership is 7th, with the 12-month membership in 18th. Sounds as though a lot of PlayStation owners are buying digital games, while Xbox owners are more interested in playing online. Or maybe this month’s Games With Gold selection is just a big draw.

The PlayStation 4 console is currently the 6th best-selling video game product, with its controller in 10th place. Just before it, in 9th place, is an Xbox 360 controller. The Xbox 360 has been out for a lot longer, so it makes sense a lot of people would need a new controller but not the console.

Now, onto the best-selling games!

First up (4th place in the list) is The Last of Us Remastered, for the PS4. I have never played The Last of Us on any console. I’m really not sure what to think about it. If I had nothing to go by other than the videos and trailers I saw of it, I’d probably never get it. I was possibly the only person on the planet it didn’t appeal to when it was shown off before its release.

But since it came out, everyone’s just raved about it. Greatest game ever, great storytelling, great mechanics… Metacritic score of 95, critics giving it a 10/10… Tons of people claim The Last of Us Remastered will win Game of the Year, making The Last of Us Game of the Year for two years in a row.

And it’s the best-selling game on Amazon right now. In fact, it’s on the best-selling list twice, because the PS3 version is in 19th place. Crazy. Maybe I should play it after all.

Moving on to the next game on the list, in 8th place, we’ve got one I actually own and have played! I haven’t played Mario Kart 8 a lot yet, but it seems like it’ll be a fun game. There’s still no Fawful (I want Fawful in a Mario Kart game so badly), but that doesn’t matter too much. I started playing the series back with Mario Kart 64, and I haven’t missed a single entry since!

I’ll get back to playing it one of these days. Maybe I’ll even play it with friends.

But enough of that, let’s get back to games everyone seems to be buying but me.

Destiny! Destiny actually claims three spots on this list. The Xbox One version is in 11th, the PlayStation 4 Destiny Bundle is in 14th, and the PS4 version is in 20th.

Destiny is one of those games I wish I would enjoy. It sounds really cool. When I see things about it, it really appeals to me. I like the sci-fi setting, the mysterious storyline, and what I’ve seen of the gameplay. However, I’m not a big fan of online games, and I don’t like the idea of having to be online to ever play it. So, as much as everyone loves it, I’m afraid Destiny is a “pass” for me, at least for now.

Next up, in 12th place, is the Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix… or II.5 Remix, as it’s apparently written. This collection follows the 1.5 Remix, and contains the Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.

I don’t know what a lot of that means. I haven’t actually played the Kingdom Hearts games yet. I own the 1.5 Remix (I.5, maybe?), but haven’t had time to play it yet. If I had, maybe I’d have this one pre-ordered already. Friends assure me I’ll love it, after all.

As it is, I won’t be getting the II.5 Remix this soon.

The repeat games have knocked out a lot of the remaining spots, so all we have left are four games I have no interest in: Minecraft for the Xbox 360, Call of Duty: Ghosts for the Xbox 360, Grand Theft Auto V for the Xbox 360, and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag for the Xbox 360. (Is that just how they’re writing it, or are there a lot of Xbox 360 players buying games to go with that extra controller in 9th place?)

In case I lost you when I jumped from number to number, here are the top 20 best sellers in Amazon’s video game category:

  1. $20 PSN card
  2. $10 PSN card
  3. $50 PSN card
  4. The Last of Us Remastered
  5. $10 Xbox card
  6. PS4
  7. 3-month Xbox Live Gold membership
  8. Mario Kart 8
  9. Xbox 360 controller
  10. PS4 controller
  11. Destiny – Xbox One
  12. Kingdom Hearts II.5 Remix
  13. Minecraft
  14. Destiny PS4 bundle
  15. Call of Duty: Ghosts
  16. Grand Theft Auto V
  17. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
  18. 12-month Xbox Live Gold membership
  19. The Last of Us
  20. Destiny – PS4

Of course, this list is changed hourly, so feel free to chime in with what the best sellers are when you read this. In the time it took me to write this, several things swapped places, the 12-month Gold membership and The Last of Us (original) dropped off the list, and a $20 Xbox gift card and the Dead Space 3 Complete Pack jumped up.

But I swear those first 3 never move.

  8 Responses to “Games People Want: Current Best-Sellers”

  1. “Samantha Lienhard is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. “

    aka the entire reason this article exists?

  2. Well, you tell me if people are reading this more than your usual stuff.

    • Well, it’s gotten the 5th most pageviews in the past week. It would be 4th if not for that weird outlier. (One post just… I don’t know… it gets an insane number of hits for some reason.)

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