GTA IV is biggest global seller of 2008

By Robert Purchese Published 21 August, 2008

Three of top five exclusive to Wii.

Grand Theft Auto IV has sold over 6 million copies to become the biggest-selling game, worldwide, of 2008.

That's according to a new Top Global Markets Report, which is compiled by Japanese, US, and UK chart specialists Enterbrain, NPD and Gfk Chart-Track, respectively.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl broke 5 million sales to take second, followed by fellow Wii exclusives Mario Kart Wii with over 4.5 million and and Wii Fit with over 3.5 million.

Rounding off the top five was Guitar Hero III, which came in at just under 3.5 million sales.

The Top Global Markets Report will be published every month. About time, say we.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Cloudane #1 4 years ago

    Nice to see that all the top five are of rather decent quality too!

  • lambtron #2 4 years ago

    SSB sold 5 MILLION? 0_0

  • leftlion #3 4 years ago

    GTA 4 sold 6 MILLION? 0_0

    The others i can understand :)

  • electrolite #4 4 years ago

    3.5 million Wii Fit sales? Cha-f'kin-ching!

  • ZeroAX #5 4 years ago

    "As of June 30, 2008, Nintendo has sold 6.42 million copies of Mario Kart Wii worldwide." from wikipedia article about mario kart wii and it has a reference....so this is proven wrong from day one.

  • Sid-Nice #6 4 years ago

    Is anybody still buying that piece of crap?

    Edit: Sorry I forgot to add GTA4.

    I ask this because Mario Kart, Wii Fit and Smash Bros Brawl sales are still doing well worldwide.
    Edited by 1 at 21/08/08 @ 17:56

  • MattyD #7 4 years ago

    Quite surprised to see Wii Fit in there given how much it costs. No wonder developers are abandoning the hardcore market like it's got the Black Death.

  • captaineurogamer #8 4 years ago

    Wii fit would have probably overtaken GTA IV sales but for shortages

  • skx #9 4 years ago

    I dont know, but...combine sales of COD 4 from box, ps and pc....


    http://vgchartz.com/games/

  • Olemak #10 4 years ago

    Huh. If the list separated between console versions, for instance making different entries for GTA IV Xbox and GTA IV PS3, then the top five would be pretty much all Nintendo exclusives. Maybe GTA for the 360 could make fifth.

    This list will pretty much remain the exact same for the rest of the year. Don't know what title would be able to challenge any of those games, or anything that can change the order they're listed in. Yay exciting.

    I don't think the list is very useful, by the way.

  • hiddenranbir #11 4 years ago

    Zzz retail. What about digital?!

  • Tehren #12 4 years ago

    Come on casual bubble, won't you burst already.

    Fuck the Wii.

  • DAN.E.B #13 4 years ago

    Come on casual bubble, won't you burst already.


    no it will keep floating around making millions and real games will be a thing of the past.

    shame.

  • Olemak #14 4 years ago

    "Real games" are still doing OK.
    Note that all the three nintendo exclusives on the list are developed by nintendo internally.

  • electrolite #15 4 years ago

    Mario Kart and Smash Bros not 'real' games??!!

    Good grief.

  • smelly #16 4 years ago

    Come on casual bubble, won't you burst already.

    Fuck all those fucking casual gamers who buy shit like GTA4.

    (and yes - gta4 IS shit, especially when compared to the other gta games)

  • smelly #17 4 years ago

    REAL gamers buy mario kart and smash bros.

    it's the casual gamers who buy games purely on the marketing/violence/media attention who buy stuff like wii fit and gta 4.

  • Olemak #18 4 years ago

    What real gamers do and do not do is way too Pure Pwnage for me. Guess I am not a real gamer anyway, as I only buy games I enjoy playing; that is probably way too softcore for real gamers. Whatever.

    GTA 4 also got a perfect score from quite a few professional reviews, and it has a metascore of 98. That is the highest metascoreever for a game.

    I agree that GTA IV is overrated and has some dull moments, checkpointing could have been a lot better etc, but claiming that is it shit just silly.

  • Beek4257 #19 4 years ago

    ^^ Agreed

    And so is calling SSB and Mario Kart casual bubble crap.

    Thank god Need for speed underground isn't in this for once.
    Edited by 1 at 22/08/08 @ 08:59

  • Arnold__ #20 4 years ago

    Great, I look forward to the next gen already, pink machines as powerful as the PSOne, and Wii this, Wii that, Nintendogs this, Cooking mama that.

    /masturbates furiously

  • kinky_mong #21 4 years ago

    Amazing how bitter some people are about casual gaming that they'll interpret a top 5 containing only one casual game (suppose you could count GH3 as well but considering how ridiculously hard the difficulty spikes in that game I wouldn't) as the end of "proper" gaming. I think it's very encouraging that Smash Bros is a close number 2, will hopefully make Nintendo push to get more proper games out instead of the gimmicky stuff.

  • BartonFink #22 4 years ago

    Good to see some decent games there in the top 5.
    Having Wii Fit in there is a bit dubious though is that really a game?

  • Skinme #23 4 years ago

    Ummm, has anyone else noticed that we still have another 3.5 months of 2008 still left to go? Surely the best time to release the figures for the biggest selling game of 2008 would be in January 2009?

    Or has some smart arse from Whitehall decided to change the first month of the year to August?

  • Olemak #24 4 years ago

    @Skinme: They're going to publish this list over the five best-selling titles worldwide every month, based on sales for the whole year up to that month.

    Personally I find the whole thing a bit pointless.

  • smelly #25 4 years ago

    "GTA 4 also got a perfect score from quite a few professional reviews, and it has a metascore of 98. That is the highest metascoreever for a game."


    Define "professional reviews", there's no such thing. Its just an opinion from someone who's played the game for a short while (in case of some websites 10 minutes).

    For example:

    "I agree that GTA IV is overrated and has some dull moments,"

    So therefor you agree that these "professional reviewers" were wrong?


    Besides i didnt say it was shit.. i said it was shit in COMPARISION to the other gta games..

  • Olemak #26 4 years ago

    @ Smelly: you said several things, among them: "Fuck all those fucking casual gamers who buy shit like GTA4. " and "it's the casual gamers who buy games purely on the marketing/violence/media attention who buy stuff like wii fit and gta 4."

    I pointed out that GTA didn't merely have media attention of the usual kind (murders inspired by GTA, GTA corrupting or young and all that), it also got rave reviews. And it is a sequel to one of the best selling and most loved game series ever. I don't think GTA IV is shit, although I agree it is overrated (and I did actually finish it, but I was all GTA'ed out after one ending, so my opinion of the game is based on seeing about 65 percent of the content, then).

    My point is: what are suffenct grounds for purchasing a game, then, if positive past experiences and reviews from well established and respected media (like eurogamer) is too weak? In fact, all of the top five games got very good reviews.

    If your point is that "brand value" has become more important than actual gameplay quality, then I agree - it is a negative development with all these sequels and big-name (often movie tie-in titles) are shoveled onto ill-informed consumers, while great one-off games like Okami and Bioshock remain neglected. But I don't know how to turn that tide, especially if game reviews are a part of the problem as you seem to imply?

    Maybe we could find a really trustworthy gaming site and support that in whatever way we can? A little effort is better than no effort. I concider Eurogamer one of the more reliable sites out there (but again, I think they are a little probe to hype-whoring tiltles like GTA) - are there any better ones?

  • smelly #27 4 years ago

    No unfortunately.

    And as for the first comment you quoted.. that was merely an answer to the fanboys.

    I do however consider a game like smash bros to be much more "hard core" and gta to me a much more "casual friendly" title..

    If you take their definitions literally...

  • michaelius #28 4 years ago

    This data is crap it doesn't include this little backwater place on earth known as continental Europe.

  • smelly #29 4 years ago

    @michaelius: If you include europe there will be loads of shitty games that only chavs like.. so they dont count

  • subtlesnake #30 4 years ago

    But these figures already include the UK!