It has been a good year so far for Xbox Live. Modern Warfare 2’s DLC broke all sales records (despite the growing drama between Infinity War and Activision), there are discussions about bringing a full time television channel onto the service, and now the XBL Arcade sales have topped its previous best and sold $10.6 million in March.
Market research analysts FADE (Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment), are reporting a 41 percent increase in sales from this time last year. By comparison, February sales were $6.8 million, which is lower than hoped, and brings the year’s XBL Arcade growth to only 5 percent.
FADE attributes the sales spike to the “Bloc Party” promotion that released four new titles including the best-selling Toy Soldiers, the Nintendo 64 remake of Perfect Dark, Scrap Metal, and the free-to-download Game Room. Several new purchases for characters’ avatars were also sold as part of the promotion.
Of the arcade sellers, Toy Soldiers took the top spot, selling 209,000 downloads for $3.14 million. Perfect Dark was second with 161,000 downloads, followed by 2009’s Trial HD with 53,000 downloads.
The XBL Arcade Top Ten for March 2010:
1) Toy Soliders – 209,000 units ($3.14m)
2) Perfect Dark – 161,000 units ($1.61m)
3) Trials HD – 53,000 units ($0.80m)
4) Battlefield 1943 – 37,000 units ($0.56m)
5) Castle Crashers – 34,000 units ($0.51m)
6) Hasbro Family Game Night – 32,000 units ($0.32m)
7) Scrap Metal – 18,000 units ($0.27m)
8) Marvel vs. Capcom – 25,000 units ($0.25m)
9) Shadow Complex – 13,000 units ($0.20m)
10) Magic: The Gathering – 16,000 units ($0.16m)
