Americas Preorder Charts - 29th Aug 09
By Brett Walton 02nd Sep 2009
Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band see large increases in preorders this week with the Beatles still comfortably ahead
The latest preorder charts are here - Modern Warfare adds another 160,000 preorders this week as Guitar Hero and Rock Band begin to heat up:
Position Game Platform Preorders Wkly Change
1 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 X360 946,491 125,390
2 Halo 3: ODST X360 830,624 91,372
3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PS3 289,156 43,320
4 The Beatles: Rock Band Wii 150,914 29,025
5 Assassin's Creed II X360 139,404 21,524
6 The Beatles: Rock Band X360 124,635 22,559
7 Tekken 6 PS3 96,174 5,943
8 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 X360 95,464 11,477
9 Guitar Hero 5 X360 88,917 31,403
10 Assassin's Creed II PS3 83,073 13,252
11 The Beatles: Rock Band PS3 78,367 13,174
12 Guitar Hero 5 Wii 76,804 27,277
13 Dragon Age: Origins X360 74,044 9,113
14 Forza Motorsport 3 X360 71,620 7,433
15 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 PS3 67,788 9,223
16 Left 4 Dead 2 X360 66,684 8,182
17 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves PS3 65,733 6,481
18 Tekken 6 X360 60,788 4,173
19 Guitar Hero 5 PS3 58,969 19,298
20 Scribblenauts DS 54,973 8,430
21 Demon's Souls PS3 53,322 4,185
22 Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days DS 51,704 6,694
23 New Super Mario Bros. Wii Wii 49,084 9,520
24 NBA 2K10 X360 48,601 9,733
25 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction X360 46,425 1,816
26 NBA 2K10 PS3 42,975 6,114
27 Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 PS3 42,210 6,295
28 Section 8 X360 37,609 6,206
29 Dragon Age: Origins PS3 36,150 4,869
30 Mass Effect 2 X360 35,826 5,943
31 Muramasa: The Demon Blade Wii 35,810 5,765
32 Bakugan: Battle Brawlers DS 35,526 5,339
33 Brutal Legend X360 33,946 4,599
34 NHL 10 X360 33,776 5,493
35 Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time PS3 29,973 3,114
36 BioShock 2 X360 27,913 3,536
37 Shin Megami Tensei: Persona PSP 25,510 2,783
38 Need for Speed: Shift PS3 24,411 3,268
39 Alpha Protocol X360 23,460 3,651
40 Battlefield: Bad Company 2 X360 23,372 3,839
Guitar Hero 5 preorders increased by 30% this week in the final few days before the game's launch, total preorders now at nearly 250,000 copies. In the big battle for music game supremacy, The Beatles: Rock Band continues to lead the way with over 350,000 preorders and another week to go yet before release. This shouldn't be a suprise, looking back to last year's games we see the following:
Guitar Hero 4 Rock Band 2
Week 1 Total Week 1 Total
X360 263,500 1,620,000 328,500 1,520,000
PS3 119,000 850,000 102,500 650,000
Wii 218,500 2,310,000 78,500 690,000
PS2 107,500 880,000 34,500 240,000
Total 708,500 5,660,000 544,000 3,100,000
A number of differences present themselves this year:
* Rock Band has the enormous advantage of the Beatles name and the marketing that brings. Special edition Beatles instruments will be a must-have for fans.
* The release dates for Rock Band last year were staggered - the 360 version came out first, a month later the PS3 version launched, a month later the PS2 version and finally the Wii version released just before christmas. This greatly harmed the sales of the non-Xbox360 versions, especially on Wii and especially with Guitar Hero launching so much earler.
* The full band version of Guitar Hero will be released as a seperate game this year - Band Hero which will not launch alongside Guitar Hero 5.
Based on these, it is entirely sensible that Rock Band should outperform Guitar Hero this year - the preorder data certainly supports that notion.
Other games performing well this week include Halo: ODST which should easily pass one million preorders before launch, Assassin's Creed 2 which continues to do well and New Super Mario Bros Wii which should see a large increase in preorders closer to release.
Check back next week for the latest movers and last weeks chart is available here