Xbox Live Arcade Reaches Record Revenues in 2010

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero

Written Thursday, January 27, 2011 By Richard Walker

With high street retailers struggling, the Xbox Live Arcade still showed record growth in 2010, posting a 16% year-over-year increase in revenues. This growth was evident across the board, with new releases raking in an average of $816,000 USD per title in 2010, compared to approximately $720,000 USD per XBLA title last year.

2010's top title in terms of units sold was Capcom's Dead Rising 2 prologue, Case Zero, which sold for 400 Microsoft Points (about $5) per unit and saw just under 700,000 units downloaded via XBLA. However, it wasn't the highest-grossing game, oh no. That was Playdead's dark platforming puzzler, Limbo, which had generated roughly $7.5 million USD in revenue by the end of 2010.

Promotions like the Summer of Arcade boosted sales of games like Toy Soldiers, which sold over 200,000 during the month, and later in the year The Games Feast saw strong sales for the likes of Super Meat Boy and Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. The Games Feast also managed to propel October to an almost triple-digit increase in revenues.

Chack out the year's top-selling titles for 2010, a year that saw XBLA revenues grow to an estimated $122 million USD:

Top Selling Titles, by Units Sold in 2010

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (Blue Castle Games/Capcom) - 689,000 Units
Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) - 553,000 Units
LIMBO (Playdead) - 527,000 Units
Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) - 415,000 Units
Toy Soldiers (Signal Studios) - 383,000 Units
Family Game Night [Various Titles (Hasbro)] - 294,000 Units
Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment) - 293,000 Units
Perfect Dark (Rare) - 279,000 Units
Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) - 268,000 Units
Deadliest Warrior: The Game (Pipeworks Software) - 210,000 Units

User Comments

Forum Posts: 25	Comment #1 by DarthTrakd Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:48:47 AM	(0)
	good for them

Forum Posts: 239	Comment #2 by R0Y4LEwitCHEESE Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:50:09 AM	(0)
	Go Chuck!

Forum Posts: 537	Comment #3 by StephenJ360 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:50:21 AM	(-4)
	Sweet! Maybe now they can give us a sale on that crap so the poor people who haven't bought them yet can enjoy.

Forum Posts: 465	Comment #4 by GDMFS0AB Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:51:22 AM	(-23)
	Notice no Case Zero in there! That's because you put the price up capcom! You could have easily repeated the sales of Case Zero! But you wanted more money! FAIL.

Forum Posts: 1768	Comment #5 by cheevo360 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:52:15 AM	(-12)
	Cool!! I got Dead Space 2 now from posted my door but I watch This Morning for naked chef afterward time Dead Space 2 to play hehehe

Forum Posts: 2005	Comment #6 by Infection Ftw Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:52:25 AM	(3)
	Lets hope developers learn that 400 MSP for a new arcade game works great.

Forum Posts: 465	Comment #7 by GDMFS0AB Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:52:28 AM	(-9)
	Sorry, no Case West

Forum Posts: 465	Comment #8 by GDMFS0AB Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:54:11 AM	(0)
	@6 - It won't really. Since 400 msp at the highest ever sales only brought in $3.5 millions, Where as Limbo, All be it a truely great game. Maybe didn't get as much sales, But netted $7.5 Million and was a 1200msp game.

Forum Posts: 166	Comment #9 by ThrustfulSteve Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:55:22 AM	(1)
	@4 you fail...you mean Case West the first time...and its not there cause it was more of the same with a depressingly boring map. glad trials is still selling well...even if it bastardises my leaderboard place

Forum Posts: 303	Comment #10 by BUZZARDIO 1080 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:57:52 AM	(1)
	IM glad toy soldiers is still doing well, i love that game so much

Forum Posts: 48	Comment #11 by Greedy Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:58:59 AM	(1)
	415,000 Units of Castle Crashers? That's the real winner considering that it is an older game AND it was a deal on 31st Dec 2009 (or 30th, I'm not sure). So a lot of people (including myself) bought this game just before 2010 =)

Forum Posts: 2079	Comment #12 by litepink Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 05:59:05 AM	(0)
	#4- Case Zero is there...and it's Number One Anyways, we know you meant Case West. Besides Case West being released December 27th, your logic is just plain dumb. "You could have repeated sales...but you wanted more money". Well, why else would they want increased sales? To look cool? NO, for money, duh. If they sell 51% of what they sold for Case Zero they made more money anyways.

Forum Posts: 15	Comment #13 by jin0869 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:02:40 AM	(1)
	Case zero was a great deal.

Forum Posts: 877	Comment #14 by Giptuc Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:03:29 AM	(-4)
	@9 and @12 If you decided to read PAST comment 4, you would have noticed he corrected his mistake in post 7. OT: Surprised that Castle Crashers is STILL up in the top 10 seeming as though its been out for so long. Case Zero and Limbo defs deserve to be up there.. but suprised Perfect Dark wasnt higher up in the list

Forum Posts: 60	Comment #15 by CJLewis Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:23:27 AM	(1)
	Deadliest Warrior lol

Forum Posts: 54	Comment #16 by Clarky08 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:28:29 AM	(-1)
	I still believe Defence Grid is the greatest Arcade game of all time. Please do a sequel and include online multiplayer!

Forum Posts: 125	Comment #17 by I Redbush I Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:33:39 AM	(0)
	the only ones on there i dont have are deadliest warrior, toy soldiers and perfect dark....all of them are great to play, way to go XBLA!

Forum Posts: 29	Comment #18 by welsh dragon888 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:35:51 AM	(0)
	No Super Meat Boy =(

Forum Posts: 26	Comment #19 by BigDaddyDirtHog Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:36:41 AM	(1)
	LIMBO is so overrated. Cant believe it made 7 million. Overrated overpriced mediocre game

Forum Posts: 197	Comment #20 by CressDX Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:42:42 AM	(0)
	No castlevania HD :(

Forum Posts: 225	Comment #21 by Balamatrix Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:46:16 AM	(0)
	anyone who doesnt appreciate this news..........must be a PS3 fanboy

Forum Posts: 268	Comment #22 by macd Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 06:53:07 AM	(0)
	Having played DR:C0, I'm not surprised. It was sold cheaply and is a great fun game.

Forum Posts: 503	Comment #23 by Volcom guy992 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 07:02:32 AM	(0)
	@18 Super Meat Boy didn't come out till the end of October though. I am sure if it had the extra two months it would have been on there. Castle Crashers is still doing amazing, which is awesome. I bet behemoth are loving the sales lol. Same with Trials HD, those are probably the 2 best selling arcade games. I know Castle Crashers is the best selling for sure.

Forum Posts: 88	Comment #24 by The Robxp Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 07:26:47 AM	(0)
	It was a good idea making case 0 a 400 point game on release, too bad case west isn't doing the same

Forum Posts: 337	Comment #25 by mksystem74 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 07:33:22 AM	(0)
	And I bought none of these in 2010. But I do have Castle Crashers and Battlefield 1943. But those numbers are impressive none the less.

Forum Posts: 38	Comment #26 by Aussie27Legend Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 07:35:31 AM	(0)
	Where the hell is Super Meat Boy... It was amazing, and cheap :(

Forum Posts: 126	Comment #27 by Earth Djinn Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 07:39:39 AM	(2)
	I hope more companies follow suit. A cheap arcade game that ties into an upcoming retail game is a great idea, when done well. It's terrible when done bad, like Pub Games. I got that for free and I still didn't like it that much.

Forum Posts: 580	Comment #28 by montrossity Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 08:21:11 AM	(0)
	Trials HD came out in 2009, and it still placed second in 2010....a truly great game.

Forum Posts: 176	Comment #29 by maur1c1o Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 08:34:44 AM	(0)
	Well these is definitly the way forward for this money grabbing companies cut out the middle man and gives them bigger profit margins soon there will be exclusive games coming out where you cant buy in the shops and only available through xbox live that way it stops prewonwd games and cuts outs the middleman im sure they will test this its just a matter of time

Forum Posts: 146	Comment #30 by agentnnc Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 08:37:38 AM	(-5)
	I'm surprised Case Zero is number one, considering the review scores it got...

Forum Posts: 82	Comment #31 by dementedlullaby Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 08:43:56 AM	(0)
	The reason Case West isn't there is probably because it barely made 2010. The others sat there for at least a couple months garnishing sales. Not to mention when X-Mas was in full swing games like Limbo made the cheap list. Bumping up sales further.

Forum Posts: 19	Comment #32 by FoolKiller Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 08:51:18 AM	(0)
	I will agree with #11. Castle Crashers rocked the year considering how old it is AND the fact it was out much earlier. I hope they start realizing that many people only purchase the games when they drop to 800 or less. I have been really dedicated and haven't bought any game over 800 points and when it is 800, it needs to be an excellent game IMHO. Anyways, here is to having a great 2011 with more innovative and fun titles.

Forum Posts: 199	Comment #33 by ViNyLek Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 09:12:53 AM	(0)
	Cool I got all of them on DoTW plus Case Zero for $5 was a steal. Can't belive how many ppl on this site complain about prices and then I look at all the money MS made last year. I guess this site is comunity of cheap wiseasses and assholes (generalizing here so no offense to anyone in particular)

Forum Posts: 65	Comment #34 by norm130 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 09:18:13 AM	(0)
	impressive figures for castle crashers

Forum Posts: 512	Comment #35 by lizard9979 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 09:35:53 AM	(2)
	I wonder how XBL did compared to Sony and Wii's market places? I think Xbox generally stomps them in that category, just curious if they recieved comparable growth.

Forum Posts: 151	Comment #36 by pikmin34 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 10:01:56 AM	(0)
	Glad to see the indie developers doing so well, they pretty much are the future of the industry as they are the only ones able to take risks and come out with fresh games. I'm very glad to see case west isn't up there. They didn't make half of case zero's sales so their little price hike scheme failed :P.

Forum Posts: 59	Comment #37 by Gearbolt Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 10:12:35 AM	(1)
	A 400 pt game at the top? It is an awesome game and priced right. Other developers should take note. You can make more money with better priced games. Not surprised Case West isn't up there. Twice the price as Case Zero. Capcom should take note that thier $5 title made more money than thier $10 title. Glad to see Perfect Dark and Castle Crashers up there as well.

Forum Posts: 133	Comment #38 by Lifter Puller Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 10:22:02 AM	(0)
	A couple of surprises there.(Deadliest Warrior? Really?) I think it would interesting to see the full list, not just the top 10.

Forum Posts: 1	Comment #39 by ajtm696 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 10:33:56 AM	(0)
	Nice. I really have enjoyed some of these original games like Lara Croft, Splosion Man and Comic Jumper as well as the classic X-men Arcade. Next up Limbo.

Forum Posts: 2089	Comment #40 by mjc0961 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 11:02:05 AM	(0)
	@37: Case West came out on December 27th. How exactly did you expect it to sell over two hundred thousand copies in the last 4 days of 2010? It has nothing to do with price and everything to do with launch day.

Forum Posts: 38	Comment #41 by SUTCLIFF 286 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 11:15:04 AM	(0)
	#18 i agree 100%, i waited for it on DOTW and even thought it was a rip off at 800msp, our lass cleared it in 2-3hrs without any help - worse still there is no replayability or different modes or anything!! It was a good game but doesn't deserve to be above BF1943 (i put 40-50hrs into this)... although i'm sure 1943 came out in 2009??? Did not realise Case Zero/west were that popular TBH i expected Trials at no.1

Forum Posts: 12	Comment #42 by OllyKiriyama Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 12:30:05 PM	(0)
	Case Zero sold that many copies, and I'm in the top 200 on the leaderboards :D

Forum Posts: 30	Comment #43 by Killerj Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 12:32:55 PM	(1)
	Yes Mr. Green Wins

Forum Posts: 155	Comment #44 by Akatsuki Sw1tch Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 12:55:06 PM	(0)
	It's no surprise a game that cost 400msp came out on top, Too many games these days come out at 1200msp which is to much for me, Please keep them between 400-800msp

Forum Posts: 67	Comment #45 by Daddy Turbov1 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 01:15:17 PM	(-1)
	@19 Trippin you mate,anyone with a dark sense of humour or likes a puzzle/platform game with a difference will LOVE Limbo!! An XBLA game worth its 1200 POINT price tag...

Forum Posts: 543	Comment #46 by Cringer85 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 01:58:07 PM	(0)
	Funny that the cheapest of the games was the best selling with the highest income. only saying..

Forum Posts: 73	Comment #47 by genosox Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 04:32:43 PM	(0)
	Those are awesome numbers considering half of those games are 2009 releases.

Forum Posts: 8	Comment #48 by killerswat255 Thursday, January 27, 2011 @ 04:48:36 PM	(0)
	castle crashers =D no surprise there

Forum Posts: 1341	Comment #49 by GhOsT SLaYeR Saturday, January 29, 2011 @ 04:50:13 PM	(0)
	Castle Crashers came out in 2008 and it is #4 most sold in 2010.... That is impressive that an older game is still going strong, but in defense of some games below it, it had 12months of sales and others did not.

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Game Info

Developer:
Blue Castle Games

Publisher:
Capcom

Genre
Action

Release:
US: August 31, 2010

Collection:	2299
Wishlist:	103

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