What were the top 100 best selling Amiga games on release?

[mcgeezer]

I was reading another thread on the EAB this afternoon and it got me thinking about what were the best selling Amiga games during its era upon release (like first month)???

Does anyone have any conclusive proof as to where I could find such stats?

I do know that licensed games sold really well (especially film) even though pretty much every one was shit, so I would expect to see the likes of Outrun, Street Fighter and Platoon were right up there.

In the absence of some stats... i would broadly say the sales went along these lines...

Games based on movies
Arcade ports
Games by Psygnosis
Games by Team 17
Games by Bitmap Brothers & Gremlin
Games by Rainbow Arts / Thalion / Grandslam / Core Design

I read somewhere on a rival forum that a game selling 50K copies was deemed a success and under 5K a flop.

Does anyone have any hard info on what sold what on release?

Geezer

Current table with verified sources

Game				Platform	Sales	Reference					Submitted By

Zool				OCS		90,000	The One, July 94				AmigaJay

Cannon Fodder			OCS		100,000	Amiga Format Issue 66				Everything Amiga Website

Bill's Tomato Game		OCS		11,000	The One, July 94				AmigaJay

Sensible World of Soccer	OCS		70,000	Amiga Format Issue 68				Everything Amiga Website

Jungle Strike			OCS		20,000	The One, Feb 95					AmigaJay

PGA European Tour		OCS		20,000	The One, Feb 95					AmigaJay

Pinball Fantasies		CD32		20,000	Amiga CD Issue 2				AmigaJay

Microcosm			CD32		20,000	Amiga CD Issue 2				AmigaJay

Sensible Socces Euro Champions	OCS		130,000	Amiga Format Special 7				AmigaJay

First Samurai			OCS		18,000	Amiga Format Special 7				AmigaJay

Cannon Fodder 2			OCS		45,000	Amiga Format Issue 68				AmigaJay

Worms				OCS		35,000	Martyn Brown, comp.sys.amiga.games		mcgeezer

Lemmings			OCS		55,000	Mike Daily, The Complete History of DMA Design	mcgeezer

Menace				OCS		20,000	Mike Daily, The Complete History of DMA Design	mcgeezer

Blood Money			OCS		40,000	Mike Daily, The Complete History of DMA Design	mcgeezer

Shadow of the Beast		OCS		50,000	Paul Howarth, Total Video Games Interview	Everything Amiga Website

Alien Breed 3D			AGA		10,000	Martyn Brown, comp.sys.amiga.games		mcgeezer

Turrican 2			OCS		30,000	Turrican SETA					mcgeezer

Turrican 3			OCS		25,000	Turrican SETA					mcgeezer

[DanScott]

I am not 100% sure, but I think some of the more successful Core Design games sold between 20K-30K copies.. they must have done to be honest, to cover the salaries at least

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by DanScott

I am not 100% sure, but I think some of the more successful Core Design games sold between 20K-30K copies.. they must have done to be honest, to cover the salaries at least

I remember Rick Dangerous being a pretty big hit. Saying that, the poor fucker popped his cloggs only for Lara Croft to fill them.

I hate to say this but I reckon Outrun might be in the top 10.

[Galahad/FLT]

Rainbow Arts and Thalion were both not as big as you would imagine.

Their distribution was terrible outside Germany.

Turrican series despite its popularity didnt sell well at all because of it.

Had Psygnosis or Ocean been publishers, I think the Turrican series would have been significantly bigger sellers.

[nikosidis]

It would surprise me if not SWOS 96/97 by Sensible Software are one of them.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by nikosidis

It would surprise me if not SWOS 96/97 by Sensible Software are one of them.

It would surprise the hell out of me if it was!

[DanScott]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

It would surprise the hell out of me if it was!

Yeah, deffo, sales after 1993 definitey tailed off to next to nothing

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by DanScott

Yeah, deffo, sales after 1993 definitey tailed off to next to nothing

Xmas 93 was the Amigas last big year, and after that, it was publishers deciding what was too far along to cancel that had to be released, and trimming back on the not so sure stuff.

[eXeler0]

Lemmings for sure, Cannon Fodder, Zool, Mortal Kombat II, Alien Breed (non 3d)
There must be a bunch more..

[Galahad/FLT]

I would hazard a guess at:

Shadow of the Beast 1 & 2
Lemmings
Streetfighter 2
Strider
Robocop
Robocop 2
Cannon Fodder
Sensible Soccer
Sensible World of Soccer
Xenon 2
Mortal Kombat 1 & 2
Pinball Dreams
Kick Off 2
Zool
Speedball 2
F/A 18 Interceptor
Sleepwalker
Jurassic Park
Batman

[LongLifeA1200]

Does games bundled with an Amiga count?

[Aladin]

The Settlers

[DamienD]

Surely:

• All the LucasFilm / LucasArt adventure games.
• Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge
• Lotus Turbo Challenge 2
• Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge
• Super Cars
• Super Cars II

[-Acid-]

F1GP
Jimmy Whites

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by LongLifeA1200

Does games bundled with an Amiga count?

No, purely games released by themselves so the likes of batman wouldnt count.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I would hazard a guess at:

Robocop 2

Really! Now that one surprises me that it would be on your guess list.

What about the Chaos Engine? Was it already too late in the Amiga lifecycle to be considered a top seller?

[Amigajay]

I think it would be interesting if everyone tried to source some sales figures to at least make a credible list otherwise its just another guess list, and is one area we have never really got much info on unlike recent games which are tracked down to the last sale nowdays.

Anyway a few numbers to get the ball rolling:

Lemmings - 55,000 - first DAY sales only.
Menace - 20,000 - not confirmed if just Amiga or combined with ST
Blood Money - 40,000 - not confirmed if just Amiga or combined with ST

Source Mike Dailly history site.



Obviously the last two wouldn’t make the top 100 sales wise but its nice to get as many games in a list as possible even if they are combined with other platforms, that way we at least get a maximum of what it could be.

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

I think it would be interesting if everyone tried to source some sales figures to at least make a credible list otherwise its just another guess list, and is one area we have never really got much info on unlike recent games which are tracked down to the last sale nowdays.

Agreed Jay, I think I'll start looking through my Retro gamer mags to see if I can pickup any snippets...there should be a few at least.

[LeChuck]

Yeah, Lemmings must be up there.

I wonder about Worms.. it got crazy popular and kept Team 17 going for years and years but Im not sure how well the Amiga version sold as it was released in the Twilight years of the platforn.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Really! Now that one surprises me that it would be on your guess list.

What about the Chaos Engine? Was it already too late in the Amiga lifecycle to be considered a top seller?

You have to remember, Robocop was massive for Ocean, you dont go securing the licence twice more unless you're confident you're going to see the sales.

ST and Amiga were same style of game, but Special FX wrote bespoke versions for each machine which likely would have cost Ocean more rather than just port the ST version to Amiga.

I'm guessing Robocop 2 was an important release and I would further suggest they paid more for the licence over the previous game.