Modern Warfare 2 wins America 2009

By Games Industry.biz Published 15 December, 2009

But Nintendo dominates rest of charts.

The best selling game of 2009 across North America was the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2, with a whopping 4.2 million units shifted by the end of November. The PS3 version finished eighth with 1.9m sales.

But Nintendo was the real dominantor and occupied four of the other top five places, according NPD yearly sales data on In information released to website IndustryGamers.

Wii Fit was 2009's second biggest seller with 3.5m sales, followed respectively by Wii Sports Resort with 2.4m, Mario Kart with 2.2m and Wii Play with 2.1m. And only one of those four was released this year.

Nintendo's success continued to Pokémon Platinum, the year's seventh best seller with 1.9m sales, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which posted 1.4m sales and rounded the chart out in 10th.

The other non-Nintendo (and non-MW2) titles in the top ten were Microsoft's Halo 3: ODST in sixth (2m sales) and EA's Madden NFL 10 in ninth (1.5m sales).

  1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360)
  2. Wii Fit (Wii)
  3. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
  4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
  5. Wii Play (Wii)
  6. Halo 3: ODST (360)
  7. Pokemon Platinum (DS)
  8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
  9. Madden NFL 10 (360)
  10. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
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Comments (13) Latest comment 7 months ago

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  • rob230 #1 2 years ago

    Quite shocked at the 360 version sold more than twice the PS3's. Expected more, just not that many more

  • Xerx3s #2 2 years ago

    I'd reckon that reggie probably wants sauce with his words. ;)

  • ignatiusjreilly #3 2 years ago

    Quite shocked at the 360 version sold more than twice the PS3's.

    Not that all systems don't love guns and terrorists, but MW2 is clearly the quintessential American 360 game. I'm not surprised it did so much better on the 360 than anywhere else.

  • macmurphy #4 2 years ago

    He said it would beat one platform, it's currently NSMB 1.4m, CODMW2 (PS3) 1.9m. I would guess that MW appeals to a lot of older gamers that bought on day of purchase (ie in November) whereas NSBW will end up in a lot of kids stockings (ie it would have sold a shedload in December and wouldn't show on these rankings). He's got until the end of January and I'm backing Reggie - NSMB to win by a mile.

    I'm even going to stick my neck out and say it won't be far off (and may even beat) the 360 version.
    Edited by 2 at 15/12/09 @ 14:19

  • malexous #5 2 years ago

    Don't forget this is only America.

    NSMBWii sold nearly a million in its first week in Japan.
    Edited by 2 at 15/12/09 @ 14:54

  • zErOb_cOOl #6 2 years ago

    Hmmm, apart from NSMB a lot of these titles have been out for a while. Shows how fast and how many people jumped on MW2!

  • macmurphy #7 2 years ago

    @ malexous. You're right, I think worldwide NSMB will dominate MW2 on all platforms. But Reggie was only referring to America, he says the guy has to give him up to the January NPD (American) figures (http://ww w.gamingtarget.com/article.php?...

  • ronuds #8 2 years ago

    In the US, Best Buy was running constant ads about how MW2 plays best on the 360. That had to play a part in the lopsidedness of it all.

  • tobsen #9 2 years ago

    A dumb game for a market dominated by a dumb audience, nuff said ;)

  • KDR_11k #10 2 years ago

    I'd reckon that reggie probably wants sauce with his words. ;)

    It's not the end of January yet. Look how much last year's games are still selling for Nintendo, you can expect NSMBW's sales to keep up for longer than MW2's.

  • DjFlex52 #11 2 years ago

    @tobsen

    I guess the UK gamers are just as dumb as us Americans since MW2 has been #1 on UK charts 4 straight weeks ;)

  • cyber_nicco #12 2 years ago

    "In the US, Best Buy was running constant ads about how MW2 plays best on the 360. That had to play a part in the lopsidedness of it all. "

    I never saw any ads like that. I can't even imagine they'd run ads like that. That being said, I have no proof they didn't run ads like that.

  • james-mw3-mw3 #13 7 months ago

    To think that Modern Warfare 3's full reveal trailer was released on May 23, 2011. What's up with Activision and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 these days, the game has the highest amount of pre-orders to date, no need for extra Call of Duty: MW3 trailers. The game will sell without them, just like this one!