The Real Arcade top 10 list is fun to watch

[James C. Smith]

[Edit: This is a very old post. The excel document mentioned is no longer keep up to date. All up to date data is not kept in a web based database that can be queried in many different ways by going to www.game-sales-charts.com]

Once again I have updated this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls) to include the latest data from the Real Arcade top 10 sellers list. For those who are not familiar with this document, I keep a history of all the top 10 selling games. I usually update the document on the web sever every week and occasional I post comments about it in this forum. You can read previous comment in this other thread (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=2337).

Here is this weeks top 10 seller list with a little historic perspective on each one.


Wheel of Fortune (1st Week in top 10)
Mah Jong Jade Expedition (2nd Week in top 10. Up from #7)
Tumblebugs (6th week in top 10. Down from #1)
Chuzzle Deluxe (5th week in top 10)
Magic Ball 2 New Worlds (3rd week in top 10. Down from #2)
Luxor (15th week in top 10. Down from #5)
Big Kahuna Reef (3rd recent week in top 10. Down from #3. 15th appearance in all time weekly top 10)
Insaniquarium Deluxe (1st recent week in top 10. 12th appearance in all time weekly top 10)
Diner Dash (19th week in top 10)
Wild West Wendy (4th week in top 10. Down from #6)


Congratulation to Mystery Studio for last 4 weeks and counting. I hope Wild West Wendy can stay in the top 10 at least a few more weeks but it looks like this could be the last week.

Big Kahuna Reef had a good 12 week appearance in the top 10 list back in late January though early April. After a long absence from the top 10 list, Real networks recently ran a temporary price reduction special on Big Kahuna Reef which generated enough sales to propel it up to the #5 spot in the list. From there is climbed to #3 the next week and now down to #7.

Insaniquarium is currently in a similar situation. It was originally in the top 10 for 11 weeks starting last September. A recent 50% off promotion pumped it up enough to make it into the top 10 again.

This is the first week that Bejeweled 2 is not in the top 10. It was in the top 10 for 31 consecutive weeks! It was in the top 5 for 23 of those weeks. It held one of the top 3 spots for 12 of those weeks. I doubt we have seen the last of this power house seller.

Other recent exits from the top 10 include Mahjong Garden To Go which had a 7 week run in the top 10 with a peek at the #2 spot in the list. Casino Island To Go lasted 7 weeks and peeked at #2. Charm Solitaire lasted 4 weeks and also peeked at #2. Tradewinds 2 lasted 5 weeks with a peek at the #4 spot in the list. Magic Ball 2 was originally in the top 10 for 13 weeks, was gone for a while, and then came back for a 4 week encore initiated by a promotion. It’s second exit form the top 10 list occurred in sync with the introduction of “New Worlds” version of Magic Ball 2.

A few other games recently made single week appearance in the top 10 and immediately fell off the radar. They include Astro Avenger, Oasis, Fruit Lockers, and Break Quest.

[soniCron]

Thanks yet again for that, James! It's very interesting to see the trends of each game through time. However, I fear that keeping track of only one of the Big Five(tm) is somewhat limiting the survey pool. I am considering tracking Yahoo! Games, Big Fish, Reflexive, and Shockwave's top 10 as well. This should give a good variety of market penetration. At the very least, it would be a good guide for deciding on a release date for a heavily competing title! Since you are over there at Reflexive, any chance you could do the "hard work" for us by posting some stats every so often? ;)

[James C. Smith]

One of the reasons I only track Real is that it is the only portal I know that that publicly posts weekly top 10 sales data. All the others have a very ambiguous list. Many of them are top 10 downloaded games or top 10 “recommended” games. I am confident that Real’s list is actually based on sales. I can not say the same of any of the other “big 5”. And many of them are based on undisclosed ranges of time and undisclosed update intervals.

In the case of Reflexive Arcade we don’t make the weekly data publicly available. The public Reflexive Arcade does have an option to display a list of top sellers but they are for a sliding 30 day window of time that is updated daily. A game that sells great for 7 days and then tapers off quickly may never make it into the top 10 for the sliding 30 day window. Reflexive Arcade also has a very skewed audience. It attracts the people who want to buy the games made by Reflexive. The top 10 sellers consistently include at least 3 games made by Reflexive and often more. This is not a realistic sample that is relevant to anyone else.

[soniCron]

All the others have a very ambiguous list. Many of them are top 10 downloaded games or top 10 “recommended” games. I am confident that Real’s list is actually based on sales. I can not say the same of any of the other “big 5”. It obviously wouldn't help when deciding a particular game to develop. But knowing how much promotion and "shelf time" these guys are giving out is of great help when knowing when to launch. I know I don't want to launch a match 3 ball game when Luxor is and has been the highest promoted game for the past 3 weeks. ;)

[Mike Boeh]

Reflexive Arcade also has a very skewed audience. It attacks the people who want to buy the games made by Reflexive.

That doesn't sound like very good marketing to me! :-)

[Robert Cummings]

Thanks james! always welcome and always interesting. Would be nice to estimate how many sales these games get. But of course, the position on the top 10 indicate sales...

But how many sales does each slot get on average per week? for example, does the no.1 slot get 1000 sales a week? How about the 10th slot?

[Sirrus]

Again a great service James...

So I'm curious as to how benefiticial only four weeks in the top ten is...
Bought your yacht yet? ;)

Seriously though, is the surge of sales so significant that after that month of glory, your set for your next title?

[ggambett]

Congratulation to Mystery Studio for last 4 weeks and counting. I hope Wild West Wendy can stay in the top 10 at least a few more weeks but it looks like this could be the last week.
Thanks - coming from you, I must say I'm honored. I don't think it will stay in the top ten for another week either, but we're quite happy with what we've achieved so far!

[Anthony Flack]

Times really have changed, eh? A couple of years back we were talking about the long shelf life of indie games compared to retail.

[simonh]

It's scary just how many quality games barely make an impact on the charts these days.

It just reinforces the need not to become over-relient on portals.

[Robert Cummings]

I can't say it hurts being reliant on portals as you'll always be able to flog the game from your site. I'm seeing some predictable trends though... it's not a suprise that good looking games are dropping out.

[lakibuk]

I can't say it hurts being reliant on portals as you'll always be able to flog the game from your site.
You can't just put your game on your website and wait until people buy it. You have to do marketing to get demo downloads. This is a lot of work and a difficult task.
What is the predictable trend you are seeing?

[James C. Smith]

Times really have changed, eh? A couple of years back we were talking about the long shelf life of indie games compared to retail.

Downloadable games can have very long shelf lives. These charts are only the top 10 sells for each week. Places like Real almost never “pull a game off the shelf”. It just gets removed from the special promo area in the front of the store and thown on the heap of games in the back. Brick and mortar retailes never keep old games around the way on-line portals do. RealArcade sells a lot of other games every week other then the top 10. Crimsonland and Swarm have never been in the top 10 at real but they still generate a steady stream of revenue from Real. And of coerce your own web site, or other affiliate sites, can do an even better job of generating long term sales. Crimsonland and Swarm are several years old and they do very well on our own web site. Ricochet Xtreme is 3 years old and it is still consistently in the top 10 or 12 sellers on our own web site if you look at the 30 day sliding window. It doesn't compete well with the new game of the week, but on the 30 day time scale it is consistently a good performer.

The other side of the argument is that games in the top 10 on big portals sell many more copies that the games not in the top 10. And it is hard to crack the top 10 or stay there for very long. That is all true. But many people make a successful business (or hobby) out of selling games that are in the top for very little or no time. The small stream of sales just continues to roll in year after year. The sales may drop off sharply when you fall out of the top 10, but the game is never pulled out of the store. It sells forever.

[Robert Cummings]

You can't just put your game on your website and wait until people buy it. You have to do marketing to get demo downloads. This is a lot of work and a difficult task.I think everyone knows that.


Predictable trends? This should be obvious to you. For every no.1 big hit, the clones will do reasonably well by default. For the others, you can make an educated guess by looking at the game itsself. Most of the popular games in the top 10 are... suprisingly... quite good?

I don't think wheel of fortune is going to stay up long either.

[Anthony Flack]

I guess the change is simply that people now focus much more intently on that little window of opportunity, with the hopes of making most of the money back there. We don't see so much of the incrementally-improved games.

[James C. Smith]

It’s time once again to review the weekly top 10 sellers in RealAarcde and see how it compares to previous weeks. (see the whole history in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls))


Aloha Solitaire (2nd week in top 10. Up from #6 last week)
Wheel of Fortune (3rd week in top 10. Down from #1 last two weeks)
Tumblebugs (8th week in top 10. Down from #2)
Luxor (17th week in list. Up from #5 last week and #6 the week before)
Mahjong Jade Expedition (2nd week in list. Down from #4)
Chuzzle Deluxe (7th week in list. Up from #8 last week but down compared to the top 4 status it held the previous 5 weeks)
Snowy - Treasure Hunter (1st week in list)
Bubble Fish Bob (1st week in list)
Magic Ball 2 New Worlds (5th week in list. Down from #7)
Diner Dash (21st week in list! Down from #9)

Recent departures include:
Wild West Wendy: Lasted 4 weeks holding the #4, #3, #6, and then #10 spots.
Big Kahuna Reef: Totaled 15 weeks in the top 10. Originally lasted 12 weeks but recently came back for a 3 week encore after Real ran a temporary price cut promotion. During the recent weeks it held #5, then #3 and then #7 spots.
Insaniquarium. Totaled 13 weeks in the top 10. Originally lasted 11 weeks but recently came back for a 2 week encore after Real ran a temporary price cut promotion. During the recent weeks it held #8 then #3 spots.
Astro Avenger appeared in the weekly top 10 twice. It debuted at #8 and was gone the next week. But it came back for one more week and #10 and is now gone again.

Didn’t make the cut:

Platypus was originally in the top 10 for 12 week but has been out of the list since last September. Real recently ran a sale on Platypus and featured it in the newsletter and on the web site but it still couldn’t get back into the top 10. This weeks newsletter still promoted Platypus so maybe it will be in next weeks top 10.

Last week Real promoted 4 new games in their newsletter and on the web site. Of these 4 games, Aloha Solitaire made it into the top 10 but these 3 did not:
Twistingo: “As the rolling marbles move in, look for matches on your bingo card” Zuma meets bingo? I don’t know. I didn’t play it but that’s what the deciption makes me think.
Hyperballoid The Next Challenge: A sequal to a breakout game.
Chowder: A Feeding Frenzy clone made by the creators of Snood using real time 3D polygons. I thought this game had surprisingly bad production values and I was surprised Real Networks released it. I am not surprised to see it didn’t make the top 10.

[soniCron]

Chowder: A Feeding Frenzy clone made by the creators of Snood using real time 3D polygons. I thought this game had surprisingly bad production values and I was surprised Real Networks released it. I am not surprised to see it didn’t make the top 10. I wouldn't be surprised if it went something like this, "From the Snood guy? We've got a winner!"

[BantamCityGames]

I wouldn't be surprised if it went something like this, "From the Snood guy? We've got a winner!"

Thats the only explaination I can think of also.

[Ricardo C]

Chowder is actually pretty fun to play, and the mouse control is excellent, but yeah... Where Snood's graphics were "so bad they're good", Chowder's are just plain bad. Dave, put some of that Snood cashola into hiring a better artist!

[Savant]

Well, evidently that money is doing more good in his bank account since it doesn't really seem to matter. He's got his audience and that audience allows him to have bad graphics. We should all be so lucky. :)

[Ricardo C]

I would concede the point if he had actually cracked the top 10, but he didn't. Maybe the lesson is that times have changed and what was "good enough" in the shareware markert of 10 years ago, is not good enough now.

Sorry, just trying to head off the Dobson-worship before it starts again.

[Jim Buck]

I agree that the controls were pretty good and overall it was a fun game. I thought the graphics were bad-but-in-that-stylized-kinda-way.. I think it works for that game..somehow.

[Raptisoft]

James, I'd like to point out that Shockwave is now maintaining an online list that's ordered by sales as well.

On the front page, under the "store" section, it lists the top five bestselling games in order.

[James C. Smith]

That’s good to know. I would love to have a history and their data as well but I don’t have enough time or ambition to add more to my plate. I keep myself busy enough as it is. Maybe someone else could log that data and post it once in a while.

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Aloha Solitaire is nice but very simple. If this kind of game can be #1, maybe I should do a solitaire game next :)

[Bmc]

Aloha Solitaire is nice but very simple. If this kind of game can be #1, maybe I should do a solitaire game next :)

keep in mind execution is everything ;)

[soniCron]

keep in mind execution is everything ;) And you're telling Phil this? ;)

[Bmc]

And you're telling Phil this? ;)

Well, I'm not sure who Phil is, but from your comment I'm guessing he is maybe the guy who made Pretty Good Solitaire etc... but anyways I was just saying in general.

[soniCron]

Well, I'm not sure who Phil is, but from your comment I'm guessing he is maybe the guy who made Pretty Good Solitaire etc... but anyways I was just saying in general. No. ;) He's the man behind PopTop Software (http://www.poptop.com/), creator of the Railroad Tycoon series, Tropico, and others.

[Ricardo C]

No. ;) He's the man behind PopTop Software (http://www.poptop.com/), creator of the Railroad Tycoon series, Tropico, and others.

In that case: Excuse me, Phil, I forgot to drop to my knees and chant "we're not worthy" :D

[Phil Steinmeyer]

FWIW I played the free version of Solitaire that came on my Palm Tungsten for about 6 hours this weekend (was traveling and had time to kill), and that's a really basic implementation, so maybe there's just something extra special about the concept of solitaire - solving a card puzzle by removing cards according to some ruleset.

[goodsol]

so maybe there's just something extra special about the concept of solitaire - solving a card puzzle by removing cards according to some ruleset.

You might be on to something there, Phil. :)

If there's a Palm OS programmer out there who wants to do a version of solitaire games for the Palm, they should contact me. If I could get my hands on a version that meets my (very high) quality requirements, I could sell a ton of them from my web site. I haven't seen anything good enough yet.

[Phil Steinmeyer]

How did Gold Fever get to #3 in the current list? That game does not seem top 3, or even top 10 material...

[Robert Cummings]

Perhaps people are enjoying the game and actually buying it? The Real arcade forum for this game suggests a few crashes though.

[Bmc]

How did Gold Fever get to #3 in the current list? That game does not seem top 3, or even top 10 material...

probably because there isn't alot of new quality games coming out... and from what I understand it's a Jewel Quest clone (I wouldn't know though cos it keeps crashing before I can play it).

if you've been following the real beta page, you would see for the best month of so they've either had 1 beta game of none each thursday... last week was the first time they've had more then 1 in a while.

[James C. Smith]

Once again, I have updated this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls) to add the most recent weeks of top 10 data to the archives. For some reason Real’s newsletter dated 7/21/2005 had the exact same top 10 list as their newsletter dated 7/14/2005. I doubt’s that is accurate, but it is the only data I have so archive shows the same list of top 10 games for those two weeks.

Here is the most recent week with my notes to put them into a longer term perspective


Aloha Solitaire (Kicking ass! 5th week in the top 10. 4th week in a row at #1)
Mah Jong Endless Journey (2nd week in list. Up from the #8 spot last week)
Crystalix (1st week in the list)
Luxor (20th week in the list. This is the 4th week in a row it has held the #4 spot. The lowest it has ever been is #6 for 1 week and it spent 2 weeks at #5).
Gold Miner Special Edition (1st week in top 10 list)
Wheel of Fortune (6th week in list. Down from #2)
Snowy - Treasure Hunter (4th week in list. Down from #5 last week which was the highest it ever climbed)
Twistingo (2nd week in list. Up from #9 last week)
FiberTwig 2 (1st week in list)
Tumblebugs (11th week in list. Down from #6 last week. This game spend 9 weeks in the top 3 and then fell to #6 and now #10 rather suddenly)


There are a lot of new game in the list in the last few weeks. This means a lot of game left the top 10.
Recent departures:
Chuzzle Deluxe – Spent 8 weeks in the top 10 list. The first 5 weeks it stayed in the top 4 and then it hung out in the bottom half of the list for 3 weeks before disappearing
Mah Jong Jade Expedition – Spent 5 week in the top 10. Peeked at #2 for one week but spent most of it’s time at #4 or #5
Magic Ball 2 New Worlds – 6 weeks in top 10. Momentary peek at #2 spot for 1 week but spent the other 5 weeks in the bottom half of the top 10.
Diner Dash – 23 weeks in top 10 list! 11 of those weeks were in the top 3. The last 6 weeks were spent at #9 or #10. It has only been gone for 1 week so there is still a chance it could pop back up next week or as soon as Real runs a promo
Gold Fever – Only last 1 week in the list at #3? Could that be right?
Bubble Fish Bob – Spent two weeks at #8 and then vanished
JEOPARDY! – Spent 1 week and #7 and then disappeared


Recent New releases that never made the top 10:
Super Jigsaw Lighthouses
Slyder Adventures
Clash n' Slash

Recent Promotions that didn’t get the games back into the top 10:
Cosmic Bugs
Platypus

[Sirrus]

I am the only one that believes Twistingo to be a horribly executed game with no true gameplay?

[Bmc]

congrats to Retro64 on making number 5 with Water Bugs... I see some people already awaiting a sequel. Jungle Bugs perhaps :P

[alfie]

I see some people already awaiting a sequel. Jungle Bugs perhaps :P

You know what?, I think you might be right there! Mike is going to be very busy and profitable over the next couple of years... Aztec Bugs, Atlantis Bugs, Mayan Bugs... and the list goes on.

[James C. Smith]

Here is Real Arcade’s most recent weekly top 10 sellers list with some recent history notes by me. See this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls) for a lot more historical data.


Aloha Solitaire – 7th week in top 10. Up from #2 last week but this is the 5th non-consecutive week it has help the #1 spot.
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 32nd week in top 10 for all time but this is the 1st recent week in top 10.
Fiber Twig 2 – 3rd week in top 10. Down from #1 last week
Super Jigsaw Lighthouses – 2nd week in top 10. Down from #3 last week
Water Bugs – 1st week in top 10
Tumblebugs – 13th week in top 10. Down from #5 last week
Wheel of Fortune – 8th week in top 10. Down from #6 last week
Mah Jong The Endless Journey – 4th week in top 10. Down from #7 last week
Snowy - Treasure Hunter – 6th week in top 10. Down from #8 last week
Twistingo – 4th week in top 10. Holding at #10

Congratulations to Mike and the whole Retro64 team for their debut of Water Bugs at the #5 spot.

Twistingo is hanging in there are the bottom of the list for 4 weeks now. The highest it ever got was #8. I have never noticed a game stay in the top 10 this long without ever getting above 8.

Luxor is missing from the top 10 list this week. Something is not right. I don’t believe it is natural. Luxor has been in the top 10 for 21 consecutive weeks and never appeared lower than #6. The last 5 weeks were all spent at #4 and not it is not on the list at all. Very strange.

Other recent departures:
Crystalix – Spent two weeks on the list. First at #3 and then #9 and then gone
Gold Fever – Spent one week at #3 and then vanished (that’s strange)
Gold Miner Special Edition – Spent one week at #5 and then vanished.

[Sirrus]

As usual, thanks for the report James.

[Stu]

Luxor is missing from the top 10 list this week. Something is not right. I don’t believe it is natural. Luxor has been in the top 10 for 21 consecutive weeks and never appeared lower than #6. The last 5 weeks were all spent at #4 and not it is not on the list at all. Very strange.

Gold Fever – Spent one week at #3 and then vanished (that’s strange)


Are you officially perplexed? :D

[z3lda]

Thanks for keeping this thread going and updating with very nice info for the forum users!

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Yes - I add my thanks to James as well - good service for the community - thank you.

Phil

[James C. Smith]

You are all very welcome. I sure wish someone else would do something similar for other web sites. Some people have told me about other major portals that have top 10 lists that appear to be based on accurate SALES data. They seem to think I should also report on those other sites. I really wish someone else would take on the project and share it with the community the way I share this compilation of publicly available data.

[Robert Cummings]

I appreciate your work James. By sharing and not witholding, you're being professional and considerate.

I won't be able to help with the other portals but I'm sure there are other things I can do when the time comes.

[ggambett]

I sure wish someone else would do something similar for other web sites. Some people have told me about other major portals that have top 10 lists that appear to be based on accurate SALES data.
I could do that. What are these other portals?

[James C. Smith]

ggambett,

Here is one that may be worth looking into.

James, I'd like to point out that Shockwave is now maintaining an online list that's ordered by sales as well.

On the front page, under the "store" section, it lists the top five bestselling games in order.

[James C. Smith]

No real info here. More of a wish list.Thanks yet again for that, James! It's very interesting to see the trends of each game through time. However, I fear that keeping track of only one of the Big Five(tm) is somewhat limiting the survey pool. I am considering tracking Yahoo! Games, Big Fish, Reflexive, and Shockwave's top 10 as well. This should give a good variety of market penetration. At the very least, it would be a good guide for deciding on a release date for a heavily competing title! Since you are over there at Reflexive, any chance you could do the "hard work" for us by posting some stats every so often? ;)

[Phil Steinmeyer]

I note that Sonicron mentions the 'Big 5' as RealArcade, Yahoo! Games, Big Fish, Reflexive, and Shockwave (not necessarily in that order)

That doesn't sound quite right to me - I doubt Big Fish is bigger than MSN, for instance.

Does anyone have any data they could share (or a link), of the approximate order in size/sales of the big portals?

[Bmc]

he also left off pogo

[soniCron]

That doesn't sound quite right to me - I doubt Big Fish is bigger than MSN, for instance. I was under the impression that Big Fish ran other high-profile portals as well. Of course, it was all anecdotal anyway. I have no idea how many big players there are; just named the ones that came to the top of my head.

[ggambett]

Here is one [shockwave.com] that may be worth looking into.
Any idea how often or when do they update the list?

[Mike Boeh]

People generally refer to the "Big 5" as:
Real
MSN
Yahoo
Shockwave
Pogo

Whether that still holds true or not is anyone's guess....

[Bmc]

not sure where I read this, but it was awhile back

something along the lines of MSN, Pogo and Yahoo being the top 3 (not in any kind of order) followed by Real, then Big Fish... I'd definetly throw in some other Oberon Media sites as well, like ICQ Arcade.

[Mike Boeh]

At the GDC, I believe Real's literature said they were the biggest.... And the general consensus I got there from others was that they were...

You know what?, I think you might be right there! Mike is going to be very busy and profitable over the next couple of years... Aztec Bugs, Atlantis Bugs, Mayan Bugs... and the list goes on.
Thanks for the congrats guys! I guess we would be foolish not to do another in the series.

[Nexic]

Can it be possible that *everyone* has played Luxor, and all who are going to buy it have bought it?!?!?! :eek:

Well, I really doubt that, but the Luxor drop off does seems really weird. Any chance they decided to remove it as it had been there so long, regardless of how well it's actually selling?

[ManuelFLara]

Well, I really doubt that, but the Luxor drop off does seems really weird. Any chance they decided to remove it as it had been there so long, regardless of how well it's actually selling?
Why would anyone remove a game from the Top Sellers list of it actually was selling as much as other top sellers? It doesn't make sense, despite the time it's been on the list.

[svero]

I guess we're somewhat relying on the list to be accurate. Also is the list a reflection of sales/bottom dollar or some other combination of conversion and sales?

[Mike Boeh]

I guess we're somewhat relying on the list to be accurate. Also is the list a reflection of sales/bottom dollar or some other combination of conversion and sales?

According to Daniel Prigg in another thread, it's gross revenue....

[Matthew]

Pasted from PowerPoint notes on slide 7 from John Welch's keynote at the Casual Games Summit this last GDC (download slides here (http://www.igda.org/online/library/2005Tutorial/Download.zip)):


Speaking notes for destinations/retailers:
- Some are quite large, but none as powerful as Wal-Mart in the retail channel.
- Top five (in terms of unit sales): Yahoo! Games, MSN Zone, Shockwave.com, RealArcade, Big Fish Games
- The number of destinations was ZERO in April 2001, six in 2003, and is now growing rapidly.

[Anthony Flack]

A third bugs game? I hope you're going to do something interesting again one day...

[Savant]

James

Maybe you already covered this earlier in the thread and if you did I apologize for this question ... but couldn't you easily include Reflexive's Top Ten in here as well? If anyone would have easy access to that data, it would be you. Or is that violating something or other?

[soniCron]

Maybe you already covered this earlier in the thread and if you did I apologize for this question ... but couldn't you easily include Reflexive's Top Ten in here as well? If anyone would have easy access to that data, it would be you. Or is that violating something or other? I believe it's just not possible. It organizes "top games" using a 30 day sliding window. (Original Post (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showpost.php?p=46284&postcount=3))

[Bmc]

A third bugs game? I hope you're going to do something interesting again one day...

i would't say they weren't interesting... and they make money!

[James C. Smith]

True. The data that we make public is a 30 day sliding window. But this is the other issue... Reflexive Arcade also has a very skewed audience. It attracts the people who want to buy the games made by Reflexive. The top 10 sellers consistently include at least 3 games made by Reflexive and often more. This is not a realistic sample that is relevant to anyone else.

[James C. Smith]

Let me show you what I mean about biased the actual sales data from Reflexive Arcade is. Here are the top 20 sellers on Reflexive.com for the last 7 days. (in other words this excludes all affiliates)

Atlantis
Ricochet Lost Worlds: Recharged
Luxor
Big Kahuna Reef
Mah Jong Quest
Ricochet Lost Worlds
War Chess
Ricochet Xtreme
FishingTrip
Slingo Deluxe
Star Defender 2
Cosmic Bugs
Redisruption
Jewel Quest
Tumble Bugs
Alien Shooter
Aloha Solitaire
Battleship Chess
Crimsonland
Crusaders of Space: Open Range

Here are the top 20 sellers in all of Reflexive Arcade for the last 7 days. (in other words, including affiliates)

Poker Superstars Invitational
Aloha Solitaire
Atlantis
Mah Jong Quest
Luxor
Big Kahuna Reef
Kasparov Chessmate
Ricochet Lost Worlds: Recharged
Jewel Quest
Heavy Weapon
Ricochet Lost Worlds
Mahjong Towers Eternity
Ricochet Xtreme
Slingo Deluxe
Alien Shooter
Diner Dash
Crimsonland
Star Defender 2
Tumble Bugs
Gunner 2

This is not typical of any other portal. You will not find BKR and all three Ricochet games in the top 10 of any other web site. But no matter what time period you choose, you always see these 4 games in the Reflexive top 10. Although this data is 100% accurate information about what sells in this distribution channel, I don’t think it is an accurate assessment of the global sales potential of these games. But maybe if you ignore the Reflexive games it is still interesting to see the other data. The list including the affiliate is less biased towards Reflexive developed games, but it has other large biases. Some very large “affiliates” only refer people to a few games. Poker Superstars Invitational has been the #1 game each week for many, many weeks because there are a few big affiliates who push mostly just that game. Kasparov Chessmate is a similar situation.

My point is, I think there are too many biases to make this data relevant to anyone else.

[Savant]

Fair enough. Thanks!

[Anthony Flack]

i would't say they weren't interesting... and they make money!

A third bug game isn't anywhere near as interesting as Mike could be though. Think of all the games that aren't being made... I expect that somewhere in Mike's mind is the beginnings of an idea for an all-time classic. I hope they'll get their chance too.

[Mike Boeh]

A third bug game isn't anywhere near as interesting as Mike could be though. Think of all the games that aren't being made... I expect that somewhere in Mike's mind is the beginnings of an idea for an all-time classic. I hope they'll get their chance too.

The plan is to do a different game next, and then another Bugs game...

[berserker]

The plan is to do a different game next, and then another Bugs game...

Then someone can make next bugs game instead of you :D

[svero]

There's bound to be some clones on the way.. I think Mike secretly wants a lot of clones just so he can feel like he started a movement. There is a certain something to that no? Imitation/flattery....

[Nexic]

I'll actually be releasing Inca Bugs at the end of the week...

[papillon]

Scarabs.

('Egypt' + 'Bugs' = A clear winner! But there probably is one already I'm just not thinking of...)

[TimS]

Scarabs.

For some reason this conjured images of the off-duty smoke jumpers in the trees of New York's parks... jumping from tree to tree roping off Asian Longhorned Beetles...

sorry to join in the off-topic ramblins. :o

[James C. Smith]

Real networks didn’t publish a new top 10 list last week. They just used the data from the previous week. I am including this duplicated data in my tables anyway since I don’t have any other data to go on and it is when Real published in their newsletter.

But we do have some new data this week.


Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 3rd recent week in top 10. 34th overall week in top 10
Aloha Solitaire – 9th week in top 10 down from #1 last week
Turtle Odyssey - NEW
Water Bugs – 3rd week in top 10. Up from #5 last week
Star Defender 2 - NEW
Luxor – 22nd week in top 10. Was missing from list last week due to some kind of error I am sure.
Poppit! To Go - New
Wheel of Fortune – 10th week in top 10. Down from #7 last week
Tumblebugs – 15th week in list. Dow from #6
Fiber Twig 2 – 5th week in list. Down from #3


Luxor debuted 24 weeks ago and has never appeared in the list lower then #6. But it was missing from the list for some strange reason two weeks ago. And last week’s list was just a copy of the same error. So Luxor only gets credit for 22 week in the top 10 (so far) but I am sure it has actually been a top 10 seller for 24 weeks now.

Recent departure form the top 10 list:

Snowy - Treasure Hunter – Lasted 7 weeks peeking at #5
Mah Jong Endless Journey – Was in the top 10 list for 5 weeks. It spent one week at #2 but all the other weeks were at #7 or worse
Super Jigsaw Lighthouses – Lasted 3 week. Went from #3 to #4 to #4 then gone this week. (Of course that second #4 is fictional data. Who knows how low it went before departing from the list)
Twistingo – Lasted 6 week in the top 10 with a peek at #4. I had previously reported that it had never gotten higher than #8. This is not true. I was missing a week of data for 7/20/2005. Not the trend makes more sense.

Thank you to all the people who sent me the data to fill in the week of 7/20/2005. Some day it would be nice to get real data for the week of 8/24/2005.


As always, the complete data is available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)

[tentons]

Scarabs.
I thought this said "Scabs" at first. What an interesting game that would be! :)

[James C. Smith]

This is a few days old now, but here is the most recent weekly top 10 sellers list from Real Arcade with my notes about their recent history


Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 4th recent week in top 10, 35th overall week in top 10
Aloha Solitaire – 10th week in top 10. It started at #9 but the other 9 weeks were all at #1 or #2!
Water Bugs – 4th week in top 10. Up from #4 last week
Turtle Odyssey – 2nd week in top 10. Down from #3 last week
Fiber Twig 2 – 6th week in top 10. Big jump up from #10 last week
Tumblebugs – 16th week in top 10. Up from #9 last week
Snowy - Treasure Hunter – 8th week in top 10. Returned after a 1 week apsence from the list
Star Defender 2 – 2nd week in top 10. Down from #5 last week.
Wheel of Fortune – 11th week in top 10. Down from #8 last week
Super Jigsaw Lighthouses – 4th week in top 10. Returned from a 1 week apsence from the list


The most supising thing about this list is that it has nothing new! Usualy there is at least one new game each week. But ther were a few games that returned from an abcence on the list so there are two games that got dropped form the list this week.

Luxor is back off the list again. It is very odd. The last 9 week look like this for Luxor - #4, #3, #4, #4, #4, >10, >10, #6, >10. where >10 mean not in the top 10 list

The other game missing this week is Poppit! To Go. It only spent one week on the list and that was at #7.

The complete history is available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)

[Mike Boeh]

The other interesting thing this week is that Real had 4 new releases. 3 is the most I previously remember for any one week. Of course, they didn't have any new ones the week before... It's been an odd few weeks there.

[Bmc]

The other interesting thing this week is that Real had 4 new releases. 3 is the most I previously remember for any one week. Of course, they didn't have any new ones the week before... It's been an odd few weeks there.

congrats on reaching number 1 this week!

[Mike Boeh]

congrats on reaching number 1 this week!

Thanks :) I celebrated by going to Costco with the wife and getting paper towels, detergent, and a chicken. That's the glamorous life of an indie for you.

[James C. Smith]

Here is the most recent weekly top 10 sellers list from Real Arcade with my notes about their recent history

Water Bugs – 5th week in top 10. Up from #3 last week
Bewitched - NEW
Aloha Solitaire – 11th week in top 10. Down from #2 last week
Academy of Magic - Word Spells - NEW
Turtle Odyssey – 3rd week in top 10. Down from #4.
Wheel of Fortune – 12th week in top 10. Up from #9
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 5th recent week in top 10. Down from #1 last week. Overall, this is the 36th week Bejeweled 2 has appeared in the Real Arcade top 10.
Adventure Inlay Safari Edition - NEW
Luxor – 23rd appearance in the top 10 over the past 26 weeks.
Fiber Twig 2 – 7th week in top 10. Down from #5 last week.

A big congratulation to Retro64 for climbing all the way to #5. Water Bugs has been in the top 5 for the past 5 week and finally made it to the top.

As usual, I find it more interesting to look at what games are no longer in the top 10. Recent departures include:

Tumble bugs – This game lasted 16 week in the top 10. It had eight weeks in the top 3 and three weeks at #1
Snowy - Treasure Hunter – Made 8 top 10 list appearances over 9 weeks with a peek at #5
Super Jigsaw Lighthouses – Made 4 top 10 list appearances in 5 weeks with a peek at #3
Star Defender 2 – Only lasted 2 week peeking at #5


The complete history is available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)

[James C. Smith]

I celebrated by going to Costco with the wife and getting paper towels, detergent, and a chicken.

That makes me wonder what you would have gotten at costco if you hadn't made number #1. Would it be a case of romen noodles rather than the chicken? Skip the detergent? Pickup napkins from the food court rather than buying paper towels? Or would you just put off the whole Costco trip until next week? :D ;)

[Mike Boeh]

That makes me wonder what you would have gotten at costco if you hadn't made number #1. Would it be a case of romen noodles rather than the chicken? Skip the detergent? Pickup napkins from the food court rather than buying paper towels? Or would you just put off the whole Costco trip until next week? :D ;)I forgot, I got a frozen yogurt too :-)

Next week should be interesting, with 4 different games having a great shot at #1:

Atlantis: Done very well elsewhere, strong game genre.
Water Bugs: The incumbent.
Chainz 2: Sequel, and #1 at Gamehouse right now.
Bewitched: Made its debut this week at #2, I would bet money that it is #1 next week.
Ancient Trijongg: Also a sequel to a successful game, Ancient Tripeaks.

[Bmc]

I forgot, I got a frozen yogurt too :-)

Next week should be interesting, with 4 different games having a great shot at #1:

Atlantis: Done very well elsewhere, strong game genre.
Water Bugs: The incumbent.
Chainz 2: Sequel, and #1 at Gamehouse right now.
Bewitched: Made its debut this week at #2, I would bet money that it is #1 next week.

not too mention Ancient Trijong, a sequel of sorts to Ancient Tripeaks

[Mike Boeh]

Fixed. My money's still on Bewitched.

[Emmanuel]

I haven't tried Bewitched yet, but mine is on Water bugs. I'm baffled by how good it is.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

Update: I did try Bewitched and was underwhelmed. Water bugs it is :)

[Bmc]

1. Atlantis
2. Chainz Relinked
3.Bewitched
4. Ancient Tri Jong
5. Water Bugs

thats my prediction for top 5

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Bewitched doesn't work for me (through Real). When I click on Play Now, it minimizes for a second, then comes right back to the menu. All other Real stuff works - no idea what the prob. with Bewitched is.

Chainz 2 is nice - should do well. I already bought Water Bugs and finished all ~600 levels of it.

If I had to guess, I'd say Chainz will be #1 next week, but it could be any of them.

[Nexic]

Yeh bewitched does that on my WinXp machine, but works fine on my Win98. I see this being a potential selling problem!

[Mike Boeh]

Fixed. My money's still on Bewitched.

I accept cash, check, money orders, and all major credit cards :)

[Stu]

Huh? Aloha Solitaire vanished? :confused:

[James C. Smith]

Bewitched – 2nd week in top 10 list. Up from #2 last week
Turtle Odyssey – 4th week in list. Up from #5
Water Bugs – 6th week in list. Down from #1
Adventure Inlay Safari Edition – 2nd week in list. Up from #8
Cinema Tycoon - NEW
Atlantis - NEW
Chainz 2 – Relinked - NEW
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 6th recent week in list. Down from #7 last week. 37th appearance in the top 10 list for all time.
Star Defender 2 – 3rd week in the top 10 list. Returned from an absence last week
Jewel Quest – 1st recent week in top 10 list. 32nd appearance in the top 10 list for all time.


Once again the list is very unstable this week. Several games are poping in and out some from high positions on the list. Games from last week that are gone this week include:

Aloha Solitaire – Was in the top 10 list for 11 weeks. All but the first week were spent in the top 3! Last week it was #3 and this week it is missing from the list. Very strange!
Wheel of Fortune – This one seems more natural. It lasted 12 weeks in the top 10 peeking at #1 for two week. It has been hanging out in the bottom half of the top 10 for the last 7 weeks. In the past 5 weeks it went from #7 to #8 to #9 to #6 and now gone from the list.
Luxor – Was in the top 10 for 23 of the past 26 weeks. Last week it was #9. This week it is gone again.
Fiber Twig 2 – Spent 7 weeks in the top 10. Peeked at #1 for 1 week. Gone.
Academy of Magic - Word Spells – Only lasted 1 week in the top 10 list. Spent it at #4



The complete history is available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)

[svero]

I have to say turtle odyssey is the most surprising thing there. Who woulda thunk it?

- S

[soniCron]

I have to say turtle odyssey is the most surprising thing there. Who woulda thunk it? I responded to this in my blog. (Isn't that the catchphrase of the day? ;)) But, here's the first portion:

They say a sign of insanity is trying something once, failing, and trying again without changing the approach. If that is an accurate measure of insanity, the game industry needs to be committed. There is an unspoken, tightly held ideal within the game development community that a clone will automatically sell. Take a pinch of this, a dash of that, and a heaping spoonful of Bejeweled, and you've got a hit. And, to a point, this is true. However, successful cloning has traditionally been serviced by sequels or one of the few highly innovative clones. (The difference between Zuma and Luxor, for example.) The sequel sells brand recognition while the innovative clone typically serves to make the game more accessible to a wider audience, usually by homogenizing gameplay mechanics. An adequate income may be provided to developers riding on the shoulders of giants. But no number one spot. And in a hit-driven industry like video games, this runs a fine line between success and failure.

Read more... (http://sonicron.solaristudios.com/essays/green-beans/)

[Sirrus]

I responded to this in my blog. (Isn't that the catchphrase of the day? ;)) But, here's the first portion:

You mentioned that the audience doesn't want any more clones...but its really hard denying raw numbers. Zuma clone #4+ Atlantis shot up the top ten list of every major portal...How is this explained? Not the first clone to follow this pattern.
While I do agree the market is interested in branching out, I don't agree that clones are not what the want. I wish it weren't true, but if they want green/red/orange/yellow/blue pees every night of the week, why not give it to them? ;)

[soniCron]

You mentioned that the audience doesn't want any more clones...but its really hard denying raw numbers. Zuma clone #4+ Atlantis shot up the top ten list of every major portal...How is this explained? Not the first clone to follow this pattern. If I'm not mistaken, RealArcade is the only portal that uses sales to determine weekly Top 10 placement. As far as I understand, the others' are arbitrarily chosen to promote certain titles. In addition, I addressed this by claiming that unique titles have a higher likelyhood of staying in the Top 10 for a significant period of time.

[Sirrus]

How do you end up browsing/responding to threads as quickly/often as me? We must have some pretty time consuming jobs...

:cool:

[soniCron]

RSS. It's your friend. :)

[Cogin]

I was browsing real arcade user reviews today. Whenever game was somehow original there were many "I wish there are more games like this", and "when will there be this game with some other theme".
Seems like people don't mind playing same gameplay they already liked, redesigned in some way.

[soniCron]

Relying on snippet reviews is less than safe. Are these people buying these clones, or just wanting another 60 minute trial to continue playing? Money talks.

[Vorax]

One comment on Turtle Odesey (sp?) ... read the user comments and play it for conformation...it's a mario clone in many many ways. Many user comments say things like "It reminds me of Super Mario...but it's so much prettier"....others "It's a Mario rippoff without the action"

It's not an exact clone, but it is definetly from a defined vein in terms of game play. Jump on the thingy's to destroy them, explore hidden parts of the level for additional points, etc. The only thing really different about is it's a turtle instead of a guy with a moustache... really pushing the edge there :)

[Anthony Flack]

It's a little bit like Mario, but it's vastly, vastly (vastly) simplified. It has none of Mario's cunning, multi-layered genius. And it has a strong emphasis on collecting piles of stuff which isn't the focus in Mario games. Of course you can see the Mario influence there, there is even an enemy that mimicks the behavior of the turtle shells. It's hardly surprising since Mario has had such a big influence on platform gaming. But the feel I get from Turtle Oddysey is not at all like Mario.

The overall impression I get, really, and I get this a lot, is that I'm trying way too hard here. Man, I could have banged out a game like Turtle Oddysey in no time and had a #1 by now!

I was browsing real arcade user reviews today. Whenever game was somehow original there were many "I wish there are more games like this", and "when will there be this game with some other theme".

This is interesting, as it suggests that users are approaching the games as simple commodities now, which they buy like cans of soup.

[svero]

> I responded to this in my blog.

I don't think there's any truth to the notion that clones don't sell. I think the opposite is true by far. New concepts are largely hit and miss. Sure if you're the first out with a new concept that really works and sells you'll benefit, but those titles are very very VERY rare and I can count on one hand how many of them we've seen in the last year or two and I'd probably have a few fingers left over. No, Turtle odyssey surprises me for different reasons. I'm not surprised it sells because its "original". I'm surprised it sells because I didn't think it was very well put together or fun. I really think that blog entry is actually way off the mark.

[soniCron]

Sure if you're the first out with a new concept that really works and sells you'll benefit, but those titles are very very VERY rare and I can count on one hand how many of them we've seen in the last year or two and I'd probably have a few fingers left over. Of course you wouldn't have trouble counting on one hand when there is a dearth of original titles being released at any time.

[svero]

I think it's important to understand though that really original titles tend to dissapear quick and that's part of why we don't see them. New unproven concepts fail in terms of "fun gameplay" far more often than they succeeed. Not that turtle odyssey really falls into the category of something particularly original anyway.. so I'm not sure why it would be the subject of this kind of question. I guess what you might say is that people just were ready for something "different". I expect there is some kind of limit to the amount of tile swapping one person wants to do... but Im often amazed at how bottomless that hole seems to be.

[soniCron]

New unproven concepts fail in terms of "fun gameplay" far more often than they succeeed. Not that turtle odyssey really falls into the category of something particularly original anyway.. so I'm not sure why it would be the subject of this kind of question. Unique is subjective, and as such, the title may not have to be new to us, just new to the audience. Zuma is a perfect example of this. It is, no doubt, a very blatant clone of an arcade title, Puzz Loop, but it was unique for the audience. And almost every time I see a unique title that fails to be fun, any familiar titles from the same development team tend to be just as not-fun. I guess I'm just saying that far too many developers shy away from developing unique titles simply because they are told it is risky, not because they understand the risk involved on a deeper level. It's just a case of the FUD bug. (Not that it's completely unfounded, mind you.)

[James C. Smith]

A lot of clones do very well. Any many more fail miserable. It seem like there have probably been at least 10 successful Bejeweled clones or games with core play mechanics inspired by Bejeweled. But there are dozens of match 3 games that never amounted to anything.

I still think the good execution is much more important than how original or unoriginal the core idea is. Cloning a proven game is not a grantee of success or failure.

One of my favorite user reviews on Real Arcade was for Big Kahuna Reef. It simply said “Stop making the same game!!!” To which I though to myself, “stop buying the same game”

[yanuart]

It simply said “Stop making the same game!!!” To which I though to myself, “stop buying the same game”
hehe.. that's so true man ! but maybe they buy the same game over and over again because there aren't many options available ?
but hey i believe a good game is a good game no matter how unoriginal it is and I salute any developer who creates a clone that sells well.
Cmon, making a good clone that sells well is as hard as making an original game, right ?... right guys ?? (i'm not being sarcastic here)

[Mike Boeh]

The user reviews are pretty meaningless. The wallets do the talking.

As an example, Water Bugs has many negative reviews for being too easy compared to Cosmic Bugs. But it has done much better sales-wise.

As for Daniel's clone rant. I think that's more wishful thinking than anything. Even without puzzloop, zuma is still a match-3 game, just presented in a fresh way. BKR is a bejeweled game, also presented in a fresh way.

Any bets on tonight's #1? I really have no idea this week, so I guess bewitched again...

[soniCron]

As for Daniel's clone rant. I think that's more wishful thinking than anything. Even without puzzloop, zuma is still a match-3 game, just presented in a fresh way. BKR is a bejeweled game, also presented in a fresh way. But, see, that's exactly my point! "Innovative" doesn't mean, "lacks familiar elements." Take Katamari, for example. That's not much more than a twist of the standard RPG "fetch" scheme. (Remember our recent discussion about Motherlode (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=4616)?) Innovation literally means, "the act of introducing something new." And by your own admission, both Zuma and BKR were fresh. Innovation doesn't have to be unfamiliar and alien, it just has to be new.

[Bmc]

But, see, that's exactly my point! "Innovative" doesn't mean, "lacks familiar elements." Take Katamari, for example. That's not much more than a twist of the standard RPG "fetch" scheme. (Remember our recent discussion about Motherlode (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=4616)?) Innovation literally means, "the act of introducing something new." And by your own admission, both Zuma and BKR were fresh. Innovation doesn't have to be unfamiliar and alien, it just has to be new.

Your flip-flopping more than John Kerry did. Like to hear yourself talk much ;)

First you say Zuma is a blatant clone of Puzz Loop, now your pretty much agreeing that it isn't. That it did indeed add new elements, and that it make it fresh.

[soniCron]

First you say Zuma is a blatant clone of Puzz Loop, now your pretty much agreeing that it isn't. That it did indeed add new elements, and that it make it fresh. I'll quote what I said in this previous post (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showpost.php?p=61220):
Unique is subjective, and as such, the title may not have to be new to us, just new to the audience.

[James C. Smith]

In this week’s edition of the Real Arcade top 10 sellers list we see only 1 new game plus a return of some recent games that went missing last week for no good reason and some recent new releases moved up the carts.


Chainz 2 - Relinked – 2nd week in the top 10 list. Moved up from the #7 spot it had last week.
Atlantis - 2nd week in the top 10. Moved up from #6.
Bewitched – 3rd week in top 10. Down from #1
Ancient Tri-Jong - NEW
Jewel Quest – 2nd recent week in the top 10. Up from #10. 33rd time in the top 10.
Water Bugs – 7th week in the top 10. Down from #3
Turtle Odyssey – 5th week in top 10. Down from #2
Aloha Solitaire – Returned to the top 10 after being missing last week. This is it’s12 appearance in the list in 13 weeks.
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 7th recent week in the top 10. Down from #8 last week. 38th time appearing in the top 10.
Luxor – Returned to the top 10 after being missing last week. This is the 24th appearance in 28 weeks


Recent departures:

Star Defender 2 is off the list again. It appeared in the top 10 list 3 times in 4 weeks with a peek at #5
Adventure Inlay Safari Edition only lasted 2 weeks and peeked at #4
Cinema Tycoon appeared for only a single week at #5 and now it’s gone


The complete history is available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)

[Anthony Flack]

Cmon, making a good clone that sells well is as hard as making an original game, right ?... right guys ??


I haven't ever made a clone, despite what some people might say. But I honestly don't believe this is true. A competent developer should be able to clone a good game and turn out another good game. No guarantees with the original game though, and probably a huge amount of false starts and backtracking, as well as a project that is very hard to control or budget for.

[merovingian]

In this week’s edition of the Real Arcade top 10 sellers list we see only 1 new game plus a return of some recent games that went missing last week for no good reason and some recent new releases moved up the carts.


Chainz 2 - Relinked – 2nd week in the top 10 list. Moved up from the #7 spot it had last week.
Atlantis - 2nd week in the top 10. Moved up from #6.
Bewitched – 3rd week in top 10. Down from #1
Ancient Tri-Jong - NEW
Jewel Quest – 2nd recent week in the top 10. Up from #10. 33rd time in the top 10.
Water Bugs – 7th week in the top 10. Down from #3
Turtle Odyssey – 5th week in top 10. Down from #2
Aloha Solitaire – Returned to the top 10 after being missing last week. This is it’s12 appearance in the list in 13 weeks.
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 7th recent week in the top 10. Down from #8 last week. 38th time appearing in the top 10.
Luxor – Returned to the top 10 after being missing last week. This is the 24th appearance in 28 weeks


Recent departures:

Star Defender 2 is off the list again. It appeared in the top 10 list 3 times in 4 weeks with a peek at #5
Adventure Inlay Safari Edition only lasted 2 weeks and peeked at #4
Cinema Tycoon appeared for only a single week at #5 and now it’s gone


The complete history is available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)


I think chasing the top ten list is silly. OTOH if you really love a game on there, and you know a bunch of ways to make it novel for its jaded players, then I'd say go for it...

[Mike Boeh]

Why is chasing the top 10 list silly? It's directly related to how much money a game makes at RA.

OT: I literally had to go buy a magnifying glass to read their royalty reports. Could the type possible be any smaller!?

[merovingian]

Why is chasing the top 10 list silly? It's directly related to how much money a game makes at RA.

OT: I literally had to go buy a magnifying glass to read their royalty reports. Could the type possible be any smaller!?

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I would suspect direct knockoffs share an ever-diminishing slice of the pie with all the other direct knockoffs while a game that refines the underlying gameplay becomes the next target of direct knockoffs. At least that's how I'd approach it and it synchs with my experience in the mainstream industry (or is RA somehow different?)...

[Black Hydra]

I can't remember who said this quote but I really like it (excuse me if I have to slightly paraphrase it):

"Cloning an existing game and making a better version is fine (and supported) in the industry. Cloning an existing game and making it worse is a huge failure"

So I guess the point is, that if you are going to clone something, you have to make it better than the original (or at the very least equatable) otherwise don't even bother. Making a game that is 90% as good as Zuma is worth squat.

One thing I'd like to point out is that uniqueness can come from many different areas.

Look at Platypus. The gameplay concept is largely simple and it isn't exactly new. But with a fresh style it let you look at the game in a different way.

Sure you can always try to be original on all fronts, but remember that there is fun in more than just core mechanics, so uniqueness isn't restricted to gameplay.

[Emmanuel]

I'll modestly stand in and provide numbers for this week, until James gets the chance to update.

Top 10 as of October 6th, 2005:


Chainz 2 - Relinked - 3rd week in the top 10 list, 2nd week as #1
Atlantis - 3rd week in the top 10 list, 2nd week as #2
Bewitched - 4th week in the top 10 list, 2nd week as #3, peaked at #1
Action Ball - NEW
Diner Dash - returns to top 10 after being gone for 9 weeks
Aloha Solitaire - up from #8 - 13th week in the top 10 in 14 weeks
Jewel Quest - 3rd recent week in the top 10. Down from #5
Mahjongg Fortuna - NEW
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe - 8th recent week in top 10 - was #9 last week as well
Turtle Odyssey - 6th week in top 10 - down from #7


Recent departures:


Ancient Tri-Jong - was #4 last week. Lasted one week.
Water bugs - was #6 last week. Remained 7 weeks in the top 10.
Luxor - was #10 last week

[soniCron]

Where's the witty commentary? ;)

[Emmanuel]

Once more I'll modestly stand in and provide numbers for this week, until James gets the chance to update.

Top 10 as of October 13th, 2005:


Atlantis - 4th week in the top 10 list, up from #2
Diner Dash - 2nd recent week in the top 10, up from #5
Chainz 2 - Relinked - 4th week in the top 10 list, down from #1
Aloha Tripeaks - NEW
Reader's digest Super Word Power - NEW
Fireworks Extravaganza - NEW
Invadazoid - NEW
Bewitched - 5th week in the top 10 list, down from #3, peaked at #1
Aloha Solitaire - down from #6 - 14th week in the top 10 in 15 weeks
Action Ball - 2nd week in top 10, down from #4


Recent departures:


Aloha Solitaire - was #6 last week. Was in there 13 weeks out of the last 14.
Jewel Quest - was #7 last week. Lasted three weeks recently.
Mahjongg Fortuna - was #8 last week. Lasted one week.
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe - was #9 last week. Lasted 8 weeks recently.
Turtle Odyssey - was #10 last week. Lasted 6 weeks.

[Nexic]

Wow #1! It seems odd that games should start out low in the top ten then climb, I would have thought it would be the opposite. Well done :)

[Sirrus]

Wow #1! It seems odd that games should start out low in the top ten then climb, I would have thought it would be the opposite. Well done :)

Think about it though...
When it is listed in the New Games section, it has more exposure than the rest of the games, but not more than the top 10 list. After it gets than initial push into the top 10, more and more people see it, and for the pure fact its in the top 10 list, they think its worth downloading...

Makes more sense ;)

[Nexic]

Oh yeh thats a good point... man I swear I'm some special breed of brainless programmer...

[svero]

Its not unusual for games to start low and move up the list. Just look at the track record posted here. It's quite common. Usually they debut under #1 and move up. Rare really big hits jump into the number 1 spot right away.

[James C. Smith]

Thanks Emmanuel. I haven’t been on the forum for a week due to IGC and shipping a beta of my new game.

Here is this weeks list:


Atlantis – 4th week in the top 10 list. Up from #2 last week
Diner Dash – 2nd recent week in top 10. Up from #5 last week. 25th overall week in top 10 (returned after a 9 week absence)
Chainz 2 - Relinked – 4th week in top 10. Down from #1
Aloha TriPeaks - NEW
Reader's Digest Super Word Power - NEW
Fireworks Extravaganza - NEW
Invadazoid - NEW
Bewitched – 5th week in top 10. Down from #3.
Aloha Solitaire – 14th week in top 10. Down from #6
Action Ball – 2nd week in list. Down from #4


There are 4 new games this week and 1 old game return to the top 10. That means there are a lot of game that got bumped out of the top 10 list. (plus I didn’t comment last week so this list also included last week’s bumps)
Recent departures:

Water Bugs lasted 7 weeks in the top 10 peeking at #1. All 7 weeks were spent at #6 or better and then it vanished from the list
Bejeweled 2 – After a 7 week absence from the top 10 list, Bejeweled 2 was recently promoted and spent 8 consecutive weeks in the top 10 with a peek at #1. This brings the lifetime total for Bejeweled 2 to 39 weeks in the top 10.
Turtle Odyssey – Lasted 6 weeks in the top 10 peeking at #2
Luxor – This is the 4th time I have noted Luxor being missing from the top 10 list. This time it has been gone for 2 weeks in a row and the last appearece was at #10 so it proably is really gone now until Real promotes it again. Luxor has appeared in the top 10 list 24 times with 10 appearances at #1
Jewel Quest – Recently spent 2 weeks in the top 10 after a promotion. This brings it’s lifetime total to 34 week in the top 10.
Ancient Tri-Jong – Only 1 week at #4 and then gone.
Mahjongg Fortuna - Only 1 week at #8 and then gone


The complete history is available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)

[James C. Smith]

Doh. Now I see that there was another page I didn’t read and Emmanuel had already posted this week list as well. Now someone can compare our posts and make sure we are both telling the same story. ;-)

Next time I will read the forum before I compose my message offline.

[Mike Boeh]

It's better to burn out than fade away :)

[Emmanuel]

Looks like I get to do it again :)

Top 10 as of October 20th, 2005:


Gem Shop - NEW
Bricks of Atlantis - NEW
Aloha Tripeaks - 2nd week in the top 10 list, up from #4
Granny in Paradise - NEW
Ancient SuDoKu - NEW
Diner Dash - 3rd recent week in the top 10, down from #2
Chainz 2 - Relinked - 5th week in the top 10 list, down from #3
Reader's Digest Super Word Power - 2nd week, down from #5
Atlantis - 5th week in the top 10 list, down from #1
Aloha Solitaire - down from #8, 15th week in the top 10 in 16 weeks


Recent departures:


Fireworks Extravaganza - lasted one week
Invadazoid - lasted one week as well
Bewitched - lasted 5 weeks in the top 10
Action Ball - lasted 2 weeks in the top 10


Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Quick reactions:

The Fireworks game - cute concept open to interesting graphics, but the basic gameplay element was boring. No surprise that only lasted a week.

I tried the Granny game, but broke the tutorial on the first level (unintentionally). I may try it again later, but that didn't bode well for me.

Invadazoid - Pretty cool - nice breakout twist.

Reader's Digest thing - Hugely boring - I'm surprised it's lasted two weeks. There's the power of a name for you...

[svero]

My only comment would be about Granny In Paradise. Nice example of a game that isn't mouse only that also sells. It might still be arguable that mouse only is better, or more likely to become a big long lasting hit, but clearly having keys is not a completely limiting factor to a game's success.

- S

[James C. Smith]

Thanks again Emmanuel. I am sure I would be much more eager to post the new list if my game was listed in it. Instead I am in crunch mode trying to finish my new game and I have no time. Maybe in a couple weeks I will be the one sitting back watching all the sales pure in and posting the list asap.

[Anthony Flack]

I just had to go and see what a game called "Granny in Paradise" was like. But the screenshots were enough for me to lose interest again. But that's just me.

[Emmanuel]

Sorry, a day late due to the release preparations for Fairies (http://www.funpause.com/).

Top 10 as of October 27th, 2005:


Granny in Paradise - 2nd week in top 10, up from #4
Bricks of Atlantis - 2nd week in top 10 and as #2
Fortune Tiles Gold - NEW
Gem Shop - 2nd week in top 10, down from #1
Aloha TriPeaks - 3rd week in top 10, down from #3
Ancient SuDoKu - 2nd week in top 10, down from #5
Diner Dash - 4th recent week in the top 10, down from #6
Chainz 2 - Relinked - 6th week in the top 10 list, down from #7
Reader's Digest Super Word Power - 3rd week, down from #8
Aloha Solitaire - 15th week in the top 10, was #10 last week also


Recent departures:


Atlantis - lasted 5 weeks in the top 10, peaked at #1. Damn! :)


Best regards,
Emmanuel

[James C. Smith]

Thanks for the update Emmanuel.

The complete history is up to date and available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)

[James C. Smith]

I have never seen games come and go in the top 10 list so quickly. In the last 10 weeks there have been 36 different games in the top 10. I didn’t verify this, but I am fairly sure this is a record. When I sort my history by "score" for last 10 weeks, Water Bugs is still #2 even though it has been missing form the top 10 list for the past 3 weeks. Nothing else since Water bugs has lasted very long. (at least not yet)

[Jack Norton]

I have never seen games come and go in the top 10 list so quickly.
Is this a good sign (production value of games has risen greatly) or a bad sign (people get tired of games very soon) ?
Or neither of the above ? :)

[Sharpfish]

Is this a good sign (production value of games has risen greatly) or a bad sign (people get tired of games very soon) ?
Or neither of the above ? :)

Maybe people are just starting to search more for variety, which causes ebbs and flows... ahh I dunno.

[Robert Cummings]

I doubt people have changed. People don't instantly change.

I think it is the portal experimenting, or perhaps some deals, or even a glitch in the matrix for sales.

I do not think the people have changed suddenly.

[soniCron]

I agree, Robert. I think there's just a lot of not-so-great games being accepted right now. I get the sense that a lot of the developers have gotten too cocky, thinking they "know the formula" -- colorful graphics, familiar theme, simple gameplay -- and that formula doesn't include fun. I think many of the developers have tried creating original titles and discovered they're not terribly good at creating good, original gameplay. Most of the games I've seen up there in the past few weeks, I wouldn't have let live past a week's worth of prototyping -- they're simply not fun.

[Robert Cummings]

Yep. Popcap know the score.

I wish portals would be more choosy about what they accept. A bunch of crappy titles will earn them a bad rep and there are many other portals to choose from.

Accept products of a high standard only please, portals. Clones are OK, but ensure the QUALITY is equal or better than current offerings.

[Emmanuel]

Sorry, a day late again due to no good reason.

Top 10 as of November 3rd, 2005:


Fortune Tiles Gold - 2nd week in top 10, up from #3
Gem Shop - 3rd week in top 10, up from #4
Bricks of Atlantis - 3rd week in top 10, down from #2
Granny in Paradise - 3rd week in top 10, down from #1
Ancient SuDoKu - 3rd week in top 10, up from #6
Aloha TriPeaks - 4th week in top 10, down from #5
Diner Dash - 5th recent week in top 10, was #7 last week also
Aloha Solitaire - 16h week in the top 10, up from #10
TriJinx - NEW
Reader's Digest Super Word Power - 4th week in top 10, down from #9


Recent departures:


Chainz 2 - lasted 6 weeks in the top 10, peaked at #1.


Looks like things are stabilizing a bit.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Emmanuel]

Top 10 as of November 10th, 2005:


Fortune Tiles Gold - 3nd week in top 10, was #1 last week already
Bricks of Atlantis - 4th week in top 10, up from #3
Granny in Paradise - 4th week in top 10, up from #4
Gem Shop - 4th week in top 10, down from #2
Chicken Attack - NEW
Phlinx To Go - NEW
Cubis Gold 2 - NEW
Ancient SuDoKu - 4th week in top 10, down from #5
TriJinx - 2nd week in top 10, was #9 last week already
Diner Dash - 6th recent week in top 10, down from #7 last week





Recent departures:


Aloha TriPeaks - lasted 4 weeks in top 10
Aloha Solitaire - last 16 weeks in top 10, up
Reader's Digest Super Word Power - llasted 4 weeks in top 10


Congratulations to Daniel for hanging in the top 5 with BOA.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Kaos]

I am thinking that Rainbow Web will do quite well in the next few weeks:

http://www.realarcade.com/game?gameid=rainbowweb&src=rahome_andmore,gmpg&tps=guide_

[James C. Smith]

Here is this week’s top ten sellers list from Real Arcade


Bricks of Atlantis – 5th Week in list – Up from #2 last week (took 5 weeks to climb to #1)
Fortune Tiles Gold – 4th week in list – Down from #2 last week
Phlinx To Go – 2nd Week in list – Up from #6
Cubis Gold 2 – 2nd recent week in list – up from #7 last week – 10th overall appearance in the top 10
Granny in Paradise – 5th week in list – down from #3
Chicken Attack – 2nd week in list – down from #5
Gem Shop – 5th week in top 10 – down from #4
Ancient SuDoKu – 5th week in list – holding at #8
Diner Dash – 7th recent week in list – Up from #10 – 30th overall appearance in the top 10
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 1st recent week in top 10 – 40th overall appearance in the top 10


There are no new games in the top 10 this week. But one “classic” game returning to the top 10 did bump one game out this week.

PlayFirst’s TriJinx only last 2 weeks topping out at #9.


As always, the complete data is available in this excel document (http://www.kimberandjames.com/clip/realaracde_top_10.xls)

[James C. Smith]

If you look in the excel document near the top of the “top 10 history” page you may notice that there is some new data that I haven’t finished integrating into the “Trends” page. Pierre F provided me with the top 10 list for several weeks in 2001. I am still trying to reconcile this with the discrepancies in the sparse data I already had for 2001.

I am also in the process of converting this all into an SQL database where I am doing more complex analysis of trends not just for each game but also for game companies and game types. I hope to publish all those results soon. In the mean time, this document is a bit messy.

[svero]

Real was really pushing Bricks of Atlantis hard recently. I received 3 animated ads for the game in Realplayer's messaging system.

[Mike Boeh]

Real was really pushing Bricks of Atlantis hard recently. I received 3 animated ads for the game in Realplayer's messaging system.

I think it all evens out. BOA wasn't being promoted at all when it clawed its way up the charts originally.... Real was promoting Granny and other games...

[svero]

Even so, to a certain degree real can control what sells and what doesnt. Obviously they want to avoid promoting a game heavily if it either just doesnt interest enough people to try it or if it sells poorly on conversion. But when they initially make that decision its not always all that clear which game will be promoted or why. Could be the whim of the editors, the developers past track record, the way real feels the market is going (ie such n such kind of game is hot), whether they have an exclusive etc... They're guessing a bit even for games they have some initial conversion rates on through their own service.

I would agree that for the most part it does even out. I think the cream still rises to the top more or less, but I dont doubt there are some better than average games that ended up getting the short end of the stick not entirely due to the fault of the game itself. A game really has to be superb (Like zuma say) to guarantee it will claw its way up. Its possible amongst the games in the 7-10 range of sales that real chooses to push one over another when both games are doing similar sales and have one fall of the chart and the other rise up to 5th or 4th position.

[Phil Steinmeyer]

But Real is not a monolithic entity that controls this biz. Even if you get a bit unlucky and fail to catch a Real editor's attention, the odds that you are equally unlucky across all ~6 other major portals is small - things should, at a minimum, average out (roughly) across portals.

[Mike Boeh]

My point is that BOA made it all they way to #2 with no headline features in the RA client or realplayer at all. It was then that real began to promote the game, because it obviously converts well. This is how most #1's work at RA-a game does well in its initial weeks, so Real begins to feature it, causing it to climb to #1. So let's give credit where it's due, Arcadelab made a terrific game that deserves its #1 ranking, and its position is just as deserved as all the other recent #1's, because it received the same treatment.

[svero]

Well it wasn't really my intent to impy that bricks of atlantis didnt deserve its spot relative to the other games, so I apologize if it was taken that way. I pointed out the extra promotion because I'd got a lot of animated ads for the game over the last week, which was a in fact a little unusual. It might be that they're a new kind of ad, or that bricks is doing especially well for them that they're promoting it more heavily than other recent number 1's. But certainly it holds true that the game is doing well therefor they promote it therefor it sells even better and not that the game is only selling because it has some kind of special preferential treatment.

[Fabio]

My point is that BOA made it all they way to #2 with no headline features in the RA client or realplayer at all. It was then that real began to promote the game, because it obviously converts well. This is how most #1's work at RA-a game does well in its initial weeks, so Real begins to feature it, causing it to climb to #1. So let's give credit where it's due, Arcadelab made a terrific game that deserves its #1 ranking, and its position is just as deserved as all the other recent #1's, because it received the same treatment.My wife really enjoys Arcadelab games, and I think each of them has something special, it feels like every bit n' byte has been created with a lot of passion, and of course a lot of work. I'm glad to see that games made this way are in the top charts, versus for example games made out of pure commercial intent.

[Daniel]

Thanks for those kind words, Fabio!

Though I'm sure we're far from beeing the only ones creating games with passion and hard work.

But wheter you're creating games with pure commercial intent or not, the important thing is to have fun all the way and to create something YOU beleive in. At least this is how I work...

Of course there's an economical interest as well, if there wasn't we wouldn't have created a trilogy of our 'Bricks of' games. Though, for me it didn't appeal to just release a level pack, or perhaps Bricks of Egypt 2 and 3.
I would rather start from the beginning with a new concept, new graphics and sounds, and with a new set of power-ups and other elements tied to the theme.
Yes, you have to put more work into it this way, and since you're exchanging the theme and some of the game play elements you're taking new risks, but this was the way I wanted it. And it seems in the end the audience appreciated this level of variety to an otherwise well-tried genre.

Ok, I'm babbling now! But my point is, do whatever makes you feel comfy.
If you're having fun, and the world out there appreciates your work, be happy! You've managed to please both yourself and your fellow neighbor!

[Fabio]

Hej Daniel. :)

Thanks for those kind words, Fabio! You're wellcome. ;)

Though I'm sure we're far from beeing the only ones creating games with passion and hard work.

But wheter you're creating games with pure commercial intent or not, the important thing is to have fun all the way and to create something YOU beleive in. At least this is how I work...

Of course there's an economical interest as well, if there wasn't we wouldn't have created a trilogy of our 'Bricks of' games. Though, for me it didn't appeal to just release a level pack, or perhaps Bricks of Egypt 2 and 3.
I would rather start from the beginning with a new concept, new graphics and sounds, and with a new set of power-ups and other elements tied to the theme.
Yes, you have to put more work into it this way, and since you're exchanging the theme and some of the game play elements you're taking new risks, but this was the way I wanted it. And it seems in the end the audience appreciated this level of variety to an otherwise well-tried genre.

Ok, I'm babbling now! But my point is, do whatever makes you feel comfy.
If you're having fun, and the world out there appreciates your work, be happy! You've managed to please both yourself and your fellow neighbor!Your modesty (in spite of the huge success you have) demonstrates even more the genuinity of Arcadelab's work.

I agree with your thoughts, and would like to add that realistically one can't always make what he likes, I myself to get back into this "business" am working on a game subject that I don't really like (a card game), but sometimes it's really necessary and "grown up" to act this way, so then it hopefully pays enough to let you do what you really like and fully enjoy to do.
And let's not forget that game development is always a beautiful job and a privilege, even if the level of freedom can vary. Being an employee has never been nicer for me, neither in its best moments, than the worst moments of my past and now reborn new indie job.

I think that the most realistic and wise compromise would be to produce some games with the aim to collect some pennies (we've to eat some bread after all and to buy some clothes), and then from time to time to produce something absolutely creative, with no fears and no compromises. Some great game developers of the '80s were doing this, and they left special memories.. which would not exist if they were fully commercial but also in case they were too idealist. Probably being balanced is the key to success (in the nicest meaning of the word).

Weird, right now I'm listening to a music group's double album that many years ago I bought because I knew and liked just one song of them. The albums revealed that this song was completely different from all their other songs and style. It was the only exception to their style (it wasn't even sung by the main singer). Yet I think I'm not the only one who remembers them for that exceptional song, instead for the other 100+ they made.

Anyway, it's me now that is certainly babbling. ;)

In any case.. keep the great work! :cool:

[James C. Smith]

I am working on setting up a new web site to track sales of casual games. For now it just has some non-interactive exports of some data from my Real Arcade top 10 list. I hope to expand on this to include more data and make it more interactive. But for now the export to Excel it is better than the hand made Excel file I usually post. (plus there is a somewhat usable HTML version exported there as well.) www.game-sales-charts.com The main difference in the new Excel file is that there are many more views of the data including top selling games, top producing companies, churn rate of the top 10 over time, and fun stuff like that. Unfortunately, it is restricted to only include dates with complete contiguous data. In other words, I no longer count top 10 appearances for dates before July of 2003 because I data for back then is hit and miss. I hope to fix that very soon. In the mean time, a lot of Games like my own Rebound show a much lower score than they should. But at least every game is subject to a more consistent filter.

[Anthony Flack]

That's awesome, James!

I hate to be picky... but... you really should change "Ditributor" to "Distributor", and "Peek" to "Peak". You are a truly a spelling legend.

Also, if it's no bother, can I get "Squashy Software" credited as the developer of Platypus? (I see there's a blank spot there). I can't resist an online high-score table, and I'd hope to rack up some more points in future...

[James C. Smith]

You can tell this is a personal project of mine and not done at Reflexive. At Reflexive there is a guy who fixes all my spelling errors before anything goes public. I often don't even send an email without having someone else read it first. But this is just for my own amusement and I don't have the Reflexive staff to do my spellchecking for me. That is why it is so great to have all of you help me out.

[James C. Smith]

Here is the newest list of top 10 selling games in Real Arcade with a little bit of historical perspective and comments added by me.


Bricks of Atlantis – 6th Week in top 10. Holding at #1
Gem Shop – 6th Week in top 10. Up from #7 Last week
Chuzzle Deluxe – 1st recent week in top 10. 9th All time appearance in top 10
Fortune Tiles Gold – 5th Week. Down from #2 last week.
Phlinx To Go – 3rd Week. Down from #3
GameHouse SuDoKu - NEW
Chicken Attack – 3rd Week. Down from #6
Mah Jong Advetures - NEW
Rainbow Web - NEW
Granny in Paradise – 6th Week in top 10. Down from #5 Last week


Other then the encore appearance from Chuzzle, the oldest game currently in the top 10 is only 6 weeks old. More surprising, there are 3 of them that are all exactly 6 weeks old. I guess 6 weeks ago some really nice games were all released at the same time.

Water Bugs is the most recently released game to last more than 6 weeks. It lasted 7. Before that was Snowy - Treasure Hunter lasted 8 weeks and Aloha Solitaire lasted 17 weeks.

3 new games and 1 encore appearance means that 4 games got bumped off the list this week. They are:

Ancient SuDoKu: Lasted 5 week and peeked at #5. I guess it got replaced by GameHouse SuDoKu
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe: Lasted a total of 40 week. Last week was the beginning and the end of it’s second encore. It’s first encore last 8 week and ended 6 weeks ago.
Cubis Gold 2: Lasted a total of 11 weeks. Last week was the end of a 2 week encore.
Diner Dash: Lasted a total of 30 weeks. Last week was the end of a 7 week encore


The online version of the complete history is not being updated this week. I am in the middle of transitioning to a new system that is not “live” yet.

[tretmike]

Here is the newest list of top 10 selling games in Real Arcade with a little bit of historical perspective and comments added by me.

...
9. Rainbow Web - NEW
...


I'm very proud that our Rainbow Web game is in Top 10 in Real Arcade and I want to thank all who participated in beta-testing of our game and helped us to make it better.

[James C. Smith]

With only 1 new game this week, the average age of the current wave of games in the Real Arcade top 10 continues to mature. There are now 3 games that are each 7 weeks old.


Mah Jong Adventures – 2nd Week in top 10 list – Up from #8 last week
Rainbow Web – 2nd week in top 10 list – Up from #9 last week
Bricks of Atlantis – 7th week in list – Down from #1 last week
Gem Shop – 7th week in list – Down from #1 last week
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 41st week in list – was not in list last week
Fortune Tiles Gold – 6th week in list – down from #4 last week
Phlinx To Go – 4th week in list – down from #5 last week
Greedy Words - NEW
Granny in Paradise – 7th week in list – up from #10 last week
Chicken Attack – 4th week in list – down from #7 last week


Game no longer in the top 10:

GameHouse SuDoKu – Only lasted 1 week peaking at #6
Chuzzle Deluxe – Had a one week long encore appetence for a total of 9 appearances in the weekly top 10 list.


You can find the complete history of all these games on www.game-sales-charts.com. The web site is still not as interactive as I would like it to be, but it is to the point where it us useful.

[James C. Smith]

I started a new topic to talk about my new web site. This way the discussion here in this topic can stay focused on the games in the top 10 list and the trends in the casual games industry. If you want to talk about my web site you can head over to the topic: Announcing Game-Sales-Charts.com (James’ history of Real Arcade's Top 10)

[James C. Smith]

I'm very proud that our Rainbow Web game is in Top 10 in Real ...
Congratulation on this week's rank! From #9 to #2!

[tretmike]

Congratulation on this week's rank! From #9 to #2!

Thank you very much!

[James C. Smith]

This week's Real Arcade top 10 list only includes one new game and it is a sequel. In the past 7 weeks there have only been 9 new games in the top 10 list. The "churn rate" has slowed down in the past few weeks compared what was happening a few months ago when we was 2 or 3 new games every week.



Luxor - Amun Rising – NEW (Sequel to Luxor which stayed in the top 10 list for 24 weeks)
Rainbow Web - 3rd Week in top 10 list - Holding at #2
Mah Jong Adventures - 3rd Week in list - Down from #1 last week
Bricks of Atlantis - 8th week in list - Down from #3 last week
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe - 3rd recent week in top 10 list - Holding at #5 - 42nd overall appearance in the top 10
Phlinx To Go - 5th week in list - Up from #7 last week
Fortune Tiles Gold - 7th week in list - Down from #6 last week
Zuma Deluxe - 1st Recent week in top 10 list - 65th overall appearance in the top 10
Gem Shop - 8th week in list - Down from #4 last week
Chicken Attack - 5th week in top 10 list - Holding at #10


Departures:

GREEDY WORDS – Only last 1 week in the top 10 list. It never made it above the #8 stop in the list.
GRANNY IN PARADISE – Lasted 7 weeks in the top 10 include one week at number 1.

In the race for “Top Company” of Real Arcade of 2005, Luxor - Amun Rising helped MumboJumbo edge out gameLab for the #5 spot with 31 weeks of have having a game in the Real Arcade top 10 list. This puts them behind GameHouse, PopCap, PlayFirst and Alawar Entertainment. Pogo’s Phlinx To Go moved them up to tie Reflexive Entertainment for the #8 spot.

“Top Company” of Real Arcade of 2005

GameHouse – 80 weeks in the RealArcade top 10 in 2005
PopCap – 60 weeks
PlayFirst - 33
Alawar Entertainment - 32
MumboJumbo - 31
gameLab - 30
iWin -28
Pogo - 23
Reflexive Entertainment - 23
Sony Pictures Digital – 18

(Companies can earn more then one “week” in a single week if more then one of their games is in the top 10 that week.)

Visit www.game-sales-charts.com to see the complete history of the Real Arcade top 10 list and many more type of summaries.

[James C. Smith]

Here is how the Real Arcade top 10 games of 2005 is shaping up so far


Bejeweled 2 Deluxe - 36 weeks in the Real Arcade top 10 in 2005
Diner Dash – 30 weeks
Luxor - 24
Mah Jong Quest - 18
Aloha Solitaire - 17
Tumblebugs - 16
Big Kahuna Reef - 15
Magic Ball 2 - 15
Wheel of Fortune - 12
Zuma Deluxe – 12


With only a few weeks left in 2005 it looks like only Bricks of Atlantis and Gem Shop have a chance of breaking into the top 10 before the end year. Of course you can see the complete ranking of all 87 games of 2005 over at www.game-sales-charts.com

And as always, I have no idea which game actually sold the most units on Real Arcade for 2005. This is just ranking the games based on how many times they made it into the weekly top 10. This is a good indicator of how they probably did on Real Arcade, and only a small hint of how they may have done on other retailer’s web sites.

[James C. Smith]

After several weeks of not much activity, the Real Arcade top 10 sellers list suddenly got a through shakeup. Four new games débuted this week and one hit made a return to the list pushing half of last weeks games off the list. Despite all this activity, the top 3 sellers remained identical to last week.


Luxor - Amun Rising – 2nd Week in top 10 list – Holding at #1
Rainbow Web – 4th week in list – holding at #2
Mah Jong Adventures – 4th week – Holding at #3
Roller Rush - NEW
Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters - NEW
Gem Shop – 9th week – up from #9 last week
Adventure Ball - NEW
Caramba Deluxe - NEW
Phlinx To Go – 6th week in top 10 – down from #6
Aloha Solitaire – 1st recent week in the top 10 - 18th overall appearance in the weekly top 10


Here are the 5 games that are no longer in the top 10 list

ZUMA – Made a 1 week encore at #8 bringing the overall total up to 65 appearance in the weekly top 10 list
BEJEWELED 2 DELUXE – Just finished a 3 week encore bringing it’s total to 42 weeks.
BRICKS OF ATLANTIS – Lasted 8 weeks with a peak at #1.
FORTUNE TILES GOLD – Lasted 7 weeks with a peak at #1
CHICKEN ATTACK – Lasted 5 weeks peaking at #5


Visit www.game-sales-charts.com to see the complete history of the Real Arcade top 10 list and many more type of summaries.

[James C. Smith]

No new games made it into the top 10 list week but 3 old games popped back into the list again pushing out 3 of the recent games.


Luxor - Amun Rising – 3rd Week in the top 10 list – Holding at #1
Adventure Ball – 2nd week in list – Up from #7 last week
Rainbow Web – 5th week in list – Down from #2
Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters – 2nd week – Up from #5
Roller Rush – 2nd week – down from #4
Mah Jong Adventures – 5th week – Down from #3
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe – 4th recent week in top 10 – reemerged after skipping last week - 43rd overall appearance
Zuma Deluxe – 2nd recent week in top 10 - reemerged after skipping last week - 66th overall appearance
Luxor – 1st recent week in top 10 - 25th overall appearance
Aloha Solitaire – 2nd recent week in top 10- Holding at #10 - 19th overall appearance


Recent departures

CARAMBA DELUXE - 1 week at #8
PHLINX TO GO – Lasted 6 weeks in the top 10 - peaked at #3
GEM SHOP – Lasted 9 weeks - peaked at #1


Of the games released in the last 4 months, Gem Shop lasted the longest with a 9 week run in the top 10. You have to go back to a July release to find a game that lasted more consecutive weeks in the top 10. That game was Aloha Solitaire. As you can see from this weeks top 10, there are many games that have lasted 10 weeks or more, but they don’t come along often and certainly not recently.

Visit www.game-sales-charts.com to see the complete history of the Real Arcade top 10 list and many more type of summaries.

[James C. Smith]

Does anyone have any interesting observation to share? It was more fun when we all commented on what made the list or didn’t. Has everyone grown board with this? Or is it interesting to see but there is just nothing to be said about it?

[Emmanuel]

Personally I love that you keep track of this, it's both a useful business tool and fun to observe. I only got one game in the top 10 so far so I don't have much insight to contribute yet :)

Edit: maybe it'd be interesting to cross that data with how much the game cost, when that figure is available.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[soniCron]

I think it's interesting that so many titles keep popping back into the Top 10. I wonder if only observing the Top 10 is counter-intuitive? After all, each category has its own top list, so there's really a Top 30... Do the top titles in each category not make enough sales to count? Is it the Top 10 that really matters? With the games popping in and out so much, I can't help but assume they were never really far off the list, and as such, should be counted. Of course, it would be impossible to accurately measure each title's progress against others in other categories, and it completely ruins your database... ;)

[Bmc]

it's interesting to see that a carbon copy clone of Diner Dash doesn't have the same impact as it did.

[tretmike]

I check this thread every Thursday. Is it very interest and useful.

As for our Rainbow Web game (http://www.SugarGames.com/rainbow_web/), I thought we would be maximum number 5 and it is a big surprise for us that we are number 3 now.

[Ricardo Vladimiro]

I check this thread every Thursday. Is it very interest and useful.

As for our Rainbow Web game (http://www.SugarGames.com/rainbow_web/), I thought we would be maximum number 5 and it is a big surprise for us that we are number 3 now.

I was playing some RealArcade games some days ago, while doing some research and when I came by Rainbow Web, I called up my wife immediatelly, since her reactions are a good way of checking casual gamers feeling for a game.

You need to ge