Castle Crashers tops XBLA chart for '08

By Dan Pearson Published 5 January, 2009

Halo 3 takes multiplayer crown.

In a fit of festive good cheer, in no way inspired by self-promotion, Microsoft has released figures for the most played Live and Live Arcade titles of 2008.

Colourful side-scrolling blast Castle Crashers earned developer The Behemoth top spot, despite the multiplayer problems experienced by the title at launch. The patch to remedy these problems finally hit XBLA on Christmas eve.

The slash'emup beat several other fan favourites to the fairy's spot on the tree, including critically enthused Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and Braid. Curiously, despite support for these titles being quite vocal during the voting process for both readers and writers top 50s, Castle Crashers featured nowhere in either list.

Halo 3 rose from its temporary nap underneath the bed of Call of Duty 4 to take the crown for most played multiplayer Xbox Live title, despite both games hitting the shelves in 2007. Representatives of 2008's produce included Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War and GTA IV

In terms of successful demos the clear winner was EA's jocular death-fest Battlefield: Bad Company, followed by Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Here's the full rundown.

Top Xbox 360 Live titles for 2008:

  • 01 Halo 3
  • 02 Call of Duty 4
  • 03 GTA IV
  • 04 Gears of War 2
  • 05 Gears of War
  • 06 Call of Duty: World at War
  • 07 Guitar Hero III
  • 08 Battlefield: Bad Company Demo
  • 09 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo
  • 10 Rock Band

Top Xbox Live Arcade titles for 2008:

  • 01 Castle Crashers
  • 02 Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
  • 03 Braid
  • 04 A Kingdom for Keflings
  • 05 UNO
  • 06 Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
  • 07 Fable II Pub Games
  • 08 Duke Nukem 3D
  • 09 Bionic Commando: Rearmed
  • 10 Worms

Top Original Xbox Live titles for 2008:

  • 01 Halo 2
  • 02 Fable
  • 03 Star Wars: Battlfront 2
  • 04 Counter-Strike
  • 05 Fable: Lost Chapters
  • 06 Doom 3
  • 07 Conker: Live Reloaded
  • 08 Splinter Cell Chaos
  • 09 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  • 10 Star Wars: Republic Commando
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Comments (15) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • LazyDan #1 3 years ago

    That's very surprising, given the problems it's had with multiplayer.

    I'm very glad though :D Fantastic game, and gets several orders of magnitude better when you add friends - whether they're local or live.

    It's the first game since I was little that I wasted hours trying to get something based on silly rumours. For reference, no you can't get the King's weapon by letting him die in the Flowery Fields >:(

    I'm glad I bought a 360, because I would be bitter as hell as a just a Wii owner without this and Braid.

  • Yossarian #2 3 years ago

    Another resounding triumph for Halo.

  • Domovoi #3 3 years ago

    I'm still trying to find the mainstream appeal of Geometry Wars. I mean, the demo looks pretty, but gameplay wise it seems pretty boring... Evading guys and shooting them seems all it is. I mean, I already played Asteroids 30 years ago, and that had the same gameplay.
    Obviously I'm wrong, because everybody keeps raving about the subtleties and variety, but I just don't see it. Anyone care to enlighten mee?

  • the_dudefather #4 3 years ago

    03: Braid

    I thought this didn't sell too well, or was that all 'oh noes the chavs won't buy my beautiful artistic game' talk?

    Wish BC:R was higher up the list, that game is aces

  • Dizzy #5 3 years ago

    >Anyone care to enlighten mee?

    No

    Stick to Asteroids.

  • DrDamn #6 3 years ago

    Not sure these stats are for multiplayer - just number of unique players also connected to Live. Did the Force Unleashed demo even have a multiplayer element for example? Also if it is based on unique id's it's not strictly most played as such - more played by the most individual people. I would have guessed CoD4 would have topped a played for the most time type list.

  • Farzlepot #7 3 years ago

    I'm amazed that Gears of War 2 managed to beat Gears of War 1, given their close proximity in the charts and the short period of time that GoW2 was available in 2008. People must have been getting very busy in those short couple of months towards the end of the year!

    I don't like the first and don't own the second, by the way, so I'm just opining on something I find interesting. This disclaimer has been provided by Farzlepot Industries Ltd. Your statutory rights will be revoked. Please see back of pack for details.

    "Did the Force Unleashed demo even have a multiplayer element for example?"

    Given that the full version didn't, I'm guessing that the demo version didn't either. You've raised a good point - perhaps it was simply being connected to LIVE that got people included in these statistics?
    Edited by 1 at 05/01/09 @ 15:30

  • Eighthours #8 3 years ago

    I'm still trying to find the mainstream appeal of Geometry Wars. I mean, the demo looks pretty, but gameplay wise it seems pretty boring... Evading guys and shooting them seems all it is.

    Even the one mode (out of six very different ones) you played in the trial version has shedloads more subtlety than that.

  • homerramone #9 3 years ago

    I bet these are the same stats posten on major nelsons site.
    Ive never believed those personally. Whilst the gears of war and halo 2 may be good games (never like halo 2 myself) I find it impossible to believe 18 months after release they are still the most played games - especially when not one person on my list has played either in months (and I have a few fans of both on my list !!)

  • miiiguel #10 3 years ago

    ^ I'm not saying that you're wrong, but it's hard to believe in that "conspiracy" when one can have up to 100 friends on one's list and there are + 14 million Live users.

    I don't know anyone with a Wii either..., and I know a lot of girls, do you know what I mean?

    edit: and if you don't trust this data, check mygamercard.net... they deal with raw numbers and they're tracking +2.5 million users, and ppl do play Gears 1... A... Lot!

    edit 2: and/or 360voice.com
    Edited by 2 at 05/01/09 @ 16:02

  • Domovoi #11 3 years ago

    Even the one mode (out of six very different ones) you played in the trial version has shedloads more subtlety than that.

    Everybody keeps saying that, but nobody cares to go into detail. Again, I'm not seeing it, and I feel like I'm missing out on something grand.

  • BadBoyBonner #12 3 years ago

    miiguel

    All you need to do is keep checking Eurogamers Most played on Xbox Live list (Halo 3 is at 8) way behind CoD:MW CoD:WaW Gear 1 & 2 etc.

    So while people may talk of anecdotal evidence on their 100 friends list - we can also talk of the 42,000 plus Eurogamer readers that are tracked - which displays the fact that in no way shape or form is Halo 3 the number 1 most played game.

    It certainly seems to me t be unique I.D.'s that have logged onto live with the game in the machine - nothing more.

  • bad09 #13 3 years ago

    Star Wars Battlefront 2 at no 3 on original xbox games? I don't get that, I got rid of my copy a while back because no one was playing it!

  • TOOTR #14 3 years ago

    @ Domovoi

    I'm sure there are subtleties in Geometry Wars - but they are tightly woven into the game itself and don't fall out into your lap after one or two sessions. They wouldn't be subtleties if they did.

    I can't enlighten you on them. One way to appreciate it more is to perhaps try the achievements as these are all set to show different sides of the game.

    BUT I'd ask you to try this.

    a)Try and arrange to play pacifism with a friend (or more if possible).
    b) Have a few goes and see who gets the highscore.
    c) try and beat or better that highscore
    d) Rinse and repeat

    The leaderboards on line with friends really pushes you to play GW2 and before you know it the addiction has set in.

  • shotgun44 #15 3 years ago

    Soulja boy bought Braid. There's a video on youtube. He really, really doesn't get it...