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The best-selling GBA games in the US by September 2005

electricmastro

electricmastro

Member
NPD sales data from https://www.installbaseforum.com/fo...r-results-discussion-thread.2917/#post-268216

They are:
  1. Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 - 2,459,300
  2. Pokemon Ruby - 2,401,000
  3. Pokemon Sapphire - 2,170,100
  4. Namco Museum - 2,146,500
  5. Mario Kart: Super Circuit - 2,084,600
  6. Super Mario Advance - 2,058,600
  7. Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 - 1,882,900
  8. Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog - 1,603,000
  9. Pokemon FireRed - 1,561,300
  10. Pac-Man Collection - 1,444,700
  11. Pokemon Emerald - 1,437,900
  12. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past / Four Swords - 1,385,500
  13. Pokemon LeafGreen - 1,363,500
  14. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Eternal Duelist Soul - 1,311,500
  15. Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku - 1,216,200
  16. Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 - 1,151,600
  17. Finding Nemo - 1,079,400
  18. Sonic Advance - 1,050,500
  19. Spyro: Season of Ice - 1,025,000
  20. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - 992,200
  21. Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land - 970,800
  22. The Incredibles - 966,300
  23. Donkey Kong Country - 962,200
  24. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 960,900
  25. Metroid Fusion - 937,300
  26. Tetris Worlds - 849,500
  27. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories - 814,400
  28. Golden Sun - 743,300
  29. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards - 743,000
  30. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie - 741,200
  31. Sonic Advance 2 - 738,500
  32. Spider-Man: The Movie - 735,400
  33. Wario Land 4 - 718,200
  34. Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure - 716,700
  35. SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman - 716,000
  36. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - 701,500
  37. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - 695,000
  38. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - 676,400
  39. Spyro 2: Season of Flame - 664,800
  40. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - 646,700
  41. Disney Princess - 635,400
  42. Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II - 621,700
  43. Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu - 608,800
  44. Donkey Kong Country 2 - 595,600
  45. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - 593,900
  46. Shrek 2 - 583,600
  47. Spider-Man 2 - 577,200
  48. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror - 567,400
  49. Disney's Lilo & Stitch - 567,300
  50. Classic NES Series: Super Mario Bros. - 548,000
  51. Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel - 544,400
  52. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - 544,200
  53. Mario vs. Donkey Kong - 533,300
  54. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 531,900
  55. Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire - 531,600
  56. Monsters, Inc. - 511,100
Notable games that failed to sell more than Monsters, Inc. on GBA by September 2005:

Fire Emblem
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
Advance Wars
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis
Iridion II
The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars
Mario Golf: Advance Tour
The Urbz: Sims in the City
Shining Soul II
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Konami Krazy Racers
CT Special Forces 2: Back in the Trenches
Mega Man Battle Network
ChuChu Rocket!
Ninja Five-0
F-Zero: GP Legend
Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
Bomberman Tournament
Rayman 3
Gradius Galaxies
Metal Slug Advance
Car Battler Joe
Max Payne
Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition
Onimusha Tactics
Tekken Advance
Guilty Gear X Advance Edition
Advance Guardian Heroes
 
Unknown? said:
Nothing did particularly well. Kinda surprising with how well GBA sold, but the games cost very little to make.
Click to expand...
Didn't help that the main focus on the system pretty much ended after three years when Nintendo felt to release the DS in 2004, likely because of the PSP.
 
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TintoConCasera said:
What the fuck man.
Click to expand...
According to this post, Castlevania was never really a particularly big seller: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/how-well-did-the-igavania-games-sell.906392/#post-132833276

"(copy&paste from a old post)
Here are the NPD figures I have, LTDs, rounded round to nearest 25k:

Symphony of the Night 475k
Circle of the Moon 475k
Lament 350k
Castlevania 64 - 350k
Dawn 275k
Portrait 225k
Dracula X PSP 200k
Curse 200k
Order 175k
Aria 150k (missing reprint sales)
Harmony 125k
Chronicle (PS1) 75k
Castlevania Darkness 64 - 50k
Judgment 25k"
 
electricmastro said:
According to this post, Castlevania was never really a particularly big seller: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/how-well-did-the-igavania-games-sell.906392/#post-132833276

"(copy&paste from a old post)
Here are the NPD figures I have, LTDs, rounded round to nearest 25k:

Symphony of the Night 475k
Circle of the Moon 475k
Lament 350k
Castlevania 64 - 350k
Dawn 275k
Portrait 225k
Dracula X PSP 200k
Curse 200k
Order 175k
Aria 150k (missing reprint sales)
Harmony 125k
Chronicle (PS1) 75k
Castlevania Darkness 64 - 50k
Judgment 25k"
Click to expand...
Thanks man. Amazing (in a bad sense) that Aria only managed to sold 150k. Imo is one of the best games on the system, and up there if not maybe a better game than SOTN in some regards.
 
electricmastro said:
According to this post, Castlevania was never really a particularly big seller: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/how-well-did-the-igavania-games-sell.906392/#post-132833276
Click to expand...

TintoConCasera said:
Thanks man. Amazing (in a bad sense) that Aria only managed to sold 150k. Imo is one of the best games on the system, and up there if not maybe a better game than SOTN in some regards.
Click to expand...

I really liked the GBA Castlevania games. I would have thought that they sold much more than what was reported here.

I also agree with you about Aria of Sorrow. It's one of the finest games on the system, and also one of the finest games in the Castlevania series.
 
3 ports, 1 remake, 2 collections of old games, and 2 versions of the same game in the top 10.
2 more ports, 1 more remake, and another version of the same game already featuring twice in the top 10, in the next 6 slots.

The top seller is a mix of remaster and demaster of a game from 15 years earlier.

The GBA was showing us the future of gaming, all right.
 
Lists like this are why I'd be totally fine with going back to Nintendo portable gaming if modern consoles and PCs become too expensive. I mean, look at how many incredible games were released on them. Give us the next DS, Nintendo. I'd buy it in a minute. Developers would probably love it, too. They could make like 50 portable games, some of them amazing, for the cost of 1 modern console game of very safe focus-tested quality.
 
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uncreativename said:
Lists like this are why I'd be totally fine with going back to Nintendo portable gaming if modern consoles and PCs become too expensive. I mean, look at how many incredible games were released on them. Give us the next DS, Nintendo. I'd buy it in a minute. Developers would probably love it, too. They could make like 50 portable games, some of them amazing, for the cost of 1 modern console game of very safe focus-tested quality.
Click to expand...
The Switch 2 is portable gaming though.
 
electricmastro said:
The Switch 2 is portable gaming though.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but I'd say there's an expectation that bigger developers will just port their big games meant to be played on the TV for it. With a system that's portable only, that expectation's removed. Also it'd be way cheaper than the Switch 2, hopefully.

I'm talking about if AAA gaming dies, just saying it wouldn't be the end of great gaming.
 
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ZehDon said:
Advance Wars doing less than 500k blows my mind. In my circle, that game was everything.
Click to expand...
Strategy games seemed like a hard sell in the first place, unless it was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance which had the fanfare of Final Fantasy being on Nintendo systems again and Yu-Gi-Oh!, which had the mass collecting element to it.
 
spain GIF



Top Best-Selling GBA Games (Spain):
  • Pokémon Ruby / Sapphire (16.22 million)
  • Pokémon FireRed / LeafGreen (12 million)
  • Pokémon Emerald (7.06 million)
  • Mario Kart: Super Circuit (5.91 million)
  • Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (5.69 million)
  • Super Mario Advance (5.57 million)
  • Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (over 2M+)
  • Namco Museum (2.96 million)
  • Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (2.83 million)
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past & Four Swords (2.82 million)
Dancer Dancing GIF by GREAT PERFORMANCES | PBS
 
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Gaiff said:
Golden Sun is so fucking good. Shame it didn't even do 1M in the US. The Lost Age isn't even on this list.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Golden Sun was my childhood obsession, growing up. It was the first time I recognized Motoi Sakuraba as a composer, and compelled me to learn and play keyboard myself. My appreciation for that kind of soundtrack music started with that little Game Boy game.

I will note though that I think Golden Sun's sales were pretty impressive considering what it was: A new IP, a Game Boy fantasy RPG, and a very wordy/text heavy game. lol

Golden Sun did 1.76 million worldwide, with Japan selling 340k, according to google. The game that "saved" Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem Awakening, did 2.3 million worldwide, and that had the benefit of the digital age with an E-shop demo, and digital downloads when it launched with a physical shortage. Golden Sun did its numbers with merely Nintendo Power magazines, word of mouth, and TV commercials selling it.

Also note that none of the Final Fantasy ports (FFIV-V-VI), nor Tales of Phantasia, are on this list. Besides Pokemon, Mario and Luigi, and Kingdom Hearts, Golden Sun was the RPG at the top, right behind Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Now google says The Lost Age had also surpassed a million worldwide, so it probably did around 400k in the America's, same with the first western Fire Emblem game. I also think the parameters for success was much lower for GBA games, which were priced at $29.99 (the good old days :D). New games today have a more expanded market, higher budgets, higher internet adoption, and more digital marketing opportunities.
 
Last edited:
Spukc said:
spain GIF



Top Best-Selling GBA Games (Spain):
  • Pokémon Ruby / Sapphire (16.22 million)
  • Pokémon FireRed / LeafGreen (12 million)
  • Pokémon Emerald (7.06 million)
  • Mario Kart: Super Circuit (5.91 million)
  • Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (5.69 million)
  • Super Mario Advance (5.57 million)
  • Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (over 2M+)
  • Namco Museum (2.96 million)
  • Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (2.83 million)
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past & Four Swords (2.82 million)
Dancer Dancing GIF by GREAT PERFORMANCES | PBS
Click to expand...
This is an incredibly depressing list.

There are literally only two original games, if you count Pokemon Gen 3 as a single game.

And people still wonder why Nintendo doesn't release many new IPs. This handheld that apparently made so many people's childhoods and had so many games, effectively lived off Pokémon and SNES games.
 
uncreativename said:
Lists like this are why I'd be totally fine with going back to Nintendo portable gaming if modern consoles and PCs become too expensive. I mean, look at how many incredible games were released on them. Give us the next DS, Nintendo. I'd buy it in a minute. Developers would probably love it, too. They could make like 50 portable games, some of them amazing, for the cost of 1 modern console game of very safe focus-tested quality.
Click to expand...
Nobody has the savvy to make games like those anymore. And nobody wants to make games tailored to inferior hardware.
It's not just a matter of scaling down. Making games for systems like GBA and DS required completely different expertise and knowledge of game design. It's a lost art. And no, no studio could churn out 50 games for the cost of one modern game. They couldn't even do it back then, when they knew what they were working with.
 
I was exaggerating a little, but they could definitely make a lot more portable games than they could AAA games, and when I said 50 I was accounting for a bunch of those games being shovelware trash, because there was a lot of that too. I feel like they could definitely rediscover the art, though. The 3ds wasn't thaat long ago.
 
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electricmastro said:
According to this post, Castlevania was never really a particularly big seller: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/how-well-did-the-igavania-games-sell.906392/#post-132833276

"(copy&paste from a old post)
Here are the NPD figures I have, LTDs, rounded round to nearest 25k:

Symphony of the Night 475k
Circle of the Moon 475k
Lament 350k
Castlevania 64 - 350k
Dawn 275k
Portrait 225k
Dracula X PSP 200k
Curse 200k
Order 175k
Aria 150k (missing reprint sales)
Harmony 125k
Chronicle (PS1) 75k
Castlevania Darkness 64 - 50k
Judgment 25k"
Click to expand...
Very happy though that M2 did a stellar job at making most of these games available on modern consoles. Love them all !
 
NeoIkaruGAF said:
3 ports, 1 remake, 2 collections of old games, and 2 versions of the same game in the top 10.
2 more ports, 1 more remake, and another version of the same game already featuring twice in the top 10, in the next 6 slots.

The top seller is a mix of remaster and demaster of a game from 15 years earlier.

The GBA was showing us the future of gaming, all right.
Click to expand...
And to build on this remark you just made, we get the best possible demonstration of how an innovative console like the DS lead to a completely new landscape. It totally revitalized the handheld scene, and this lead to a ton of brand new games, and even traditional games not particularly built around the touch screen.
 
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yogaflame said:
Gba is a very good handheld.
Click to expand...
it really is, im only now catching up with it through emulators and retro handhelds, so this is not even nostalgia goggles.
the technical jump from gameboy-color is crazy
most games are peak 2d-sprite art, which made the library age much better than early 3d games too.
 
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