Howdy! Saturday will mark the one year anniversary of the XBox One, which means we will have our first complete year with all 3 current gen consoles on the market. So…..why not look at the numbers! This isn’t designed to determine if anyone won or lost anything. After all, it’s only Year 1. Well, year 2 for the Wii U. In any event, think of it as a summary of the past year in gaming. We’ll look at consoles sold, and each console’s top 10. As always, I’ll comment on any relevant data as I see fit. Let’s get started. All numbers are from last November to about the middle of this November, courtesy of VGChartz. Remember, VGChartz doesn’t track digital sales. Bummer.

PS4 – 13.01 million

XBox One – 6.73 million 

Wii U – 2.15 million

As far as hardware sales, there is no doubt that the PS4 has came out of the gate at top speed. It’s averaging over a million sold per month, which is crazy really. However, let’s not for a second think that this race is anywhere near over. The XBox One is selling at a great pace itself considering the obstacles it faced before launch. The Kinect less SKU and follow up price cut have increased sales, and there are some great holiday bundles popping up everywhere. As for the Wii U, despite the low sales for the year there is also positive momentum here. Nintendo earned a ton of gamer goodwill with their E3 showing, and the 3 piece combo of Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, and Smash Bros have the console looking fantastic. The last console cycle was way too unpredictable to make any definitive statements. But for now, Sony has taken an early lead despite the Wii U’s year head start and Microsoft’s stranglehold on America last gen. Let’s see how Year 2 goes. On to the software.

PS4 Top 10

The first thing I noticed was that 5 games from 2013 are still in the top 10 (spots 5-9). In my mind, this illustrates the lack of star power in 2014. I won’t beat that dead horse, but I do wonder how long it will take for those launch games to be ousted. COD: AW should pass Watch Dogs any day now. I’m not sure how long it will take to pass Destiny and FIFA, but I’m almost certain it will. There is a serious lack of diversity here, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. People screamed they needed more games, but this chart screams they needed more shooters. 5 first person shooters, 3 open world action games, and 2 soccer games. Jesus. Sony needs their first party to create some diversity here, because that has been their calling card for years. One last thing. There are only two exclusives in the Top 10. Sony has banked on their first party recently, so they need to bring the heat next year. The Order gets the first chance, and Sony is hoping for at least a triple.

XBox One Top 10

I’m shocked Titanfall is sitting at number 1. I really am. Microsoft also has 5 launch titles resting in the Top 10. The genres also line up with Sony, except they swapped a racer for an open world game. Microsoft got 3 exclusives into the Top 10, so they fared a bit better in that respect. They are facing the same dilemma as Sony. They need the first party offerings to pull their weight. The Master Chief Collection will no doubt get the party started, but who will follow up? Quantum Break perhaps? Gears of War is probably a ways off. And Halo 5 will be next holiday probably.

Wii U Top 10

It was hard to ascertain what Wii U games were the Top 10 of 2014, but I tried my best to figure it out. I’m sorry if this isn’t perfect. I’m also sorry I couldn’t do the fancy chart like above.

Mario Kart 8 – 2.7 million

New Super Mario Bros U – 766K

Super Mario 3D World – 736K

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – 725K

New Super Luigi U – 584K

Hyrule Warriors – 523K

Wii Party U – 400 K

Nintendo Land – 400K

Wii Fit U – 323K

Bayonetta 2 – 320K

First of all……MY GIRL BAYONETTA! Ok. You’ll notice that NONE of these games are on another console. But it’s Nintendo, so that’s expected. Also, only one of these games has guns. So there’s that. You can’t ignore that 4 of these games are Mario titles, but there is still some diversity here. A racer, 2 action titles, a fitness game, 2 party games, and the great platformers Nintendo excels at. The lack of third party thunder is indeed a problem, and Nintendo have been trying their best to alleviate it. They should make that a huge focus next year if they are to stay in the race.

You may see some of your favorite games missing. Don’t get mad at me, I’m just stating the facts. We just had quite a few releases that will be on this list VERY soon. Far Cry, Dragon Age, Smash Bros tomorrow, GTA V Remastered……I could redo this list next month and you wouldn’t recognize it. But……next month isn’t the anniversary. So here we are. I just wanted to give you all a little snapshot of what happened in the last year. Hopefully we will separate the consoles and REALLY break their year down very soon. So look out for that. Happy gaming!