TA Gaming Stats - July 23rd to July 29th 2012

Another week of no notable retail releases and a Summer of Arcade release that is Kinect-only made for a week of low, dull numbers.

This report is for the period July 23rd to July 29th.

Games Started
15,153 TrueAchievements gamers started a total of 23,541 games between them (1,587 different games).

Spec Ops: The Line continues to run towards the front of the pack thanks to strong word of mouth. Batman: Arkham City, however, nearly took the top spot despite having been released back in October. Amusingly enough, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is right behind, giving us two straight Batman titles in the top three.

It could be video games or the movie box office, but The Amazing Spider-Man remains behind Batman. Far behind.

Finally, note the amount of games from 2011 on this chart: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Dead Island and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Every summer, it seems we dip into the backlog.

Top Retail Games Started

• Spec Ops: The Line243

• Batman: Arkham City242

• LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes227

• The Amazing Spider-Man212

• Assassin's Creed: Revelations211

• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier210

• Dead Island195

• Max Payne 3195

• Lollipop Chainsaw187

• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary151

Wreckateer may be well-rated by the TA Community, but as a Kinect-only XBLA title, the audience is already fairly limited. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD holds onto the top spot which I believe it will let go of once Deadlight hits the stats.

By the time you read this since, again, new job and all, the actual Mars Rover will be on the surface of the Red Planet. Kinect Fun Labs: Mars Rover Landing should be fired up to show support for NASA, whom this time, hopefully, converted measurements back into metric.

Top Arcade Games Started

• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD594

• Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition330

• Wreckateer316

• Kinect Fun Labs: Mars Rover Landing273

• The Walking Dead179

• Kinect PlayFit127

• Zuma's Revenge!110

• Trials Evolution107

• Dungeon Fighter LIVE: Fall of Hendon Myre90

• Quantum Conundrum82

geoDefense (WP) is always a hit when it's on sale. As one of the top rated WP original titles, geoDefense deserves all the good word of mouth it receives, especially compared to the next three games on this chart.

Glu Mobile's duo of free titles were knocked down a notch by, of all companies, a Gameloft mobile game. If Gameloft means nothing to you, be grateful.

Top Windows Phone Games Started

• geoDefense (WP)150

• Asphalt 5 (WP)138

• Contract Killer (WP)132

• Gun Bros (WP)86

• Splinter Cell: Conviction (WP)80

• Wordament (WP)50

• Shuffle Party (WP)45

• Breeze (WP)41

• Fling (WP)41

• Sudoku (WP)41

Games Completed
6,497 TrueAchievements gamers completed a total of 9,107 games between them (1,166 different games).

The rush of people completing recent DLC packs must be coming to a close, as an actual retail game with no DLC has claimed the top spot. I am amused by Borderlands, which is clearly here as gamers are trying to finish it off before the sequel hits the 360 with the force of a nuclear bomb.

Top Retail Games Completed

• LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes194

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim178

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3134

• Prototype 272

• Battlefield 366

• Spec Ops: The Line64

• Borderlands63

• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary63

• Lollipop Chainsaw55

• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-755

The last few weeks always remind me that with one achievement left, I really should complete Shoot Many Robots.

At least I am in the process of actively playing http://www.trueachievements.com/Minecraft-xbox-360.htm; a whole five hours this past weekend alone were sunk into the local four-player of that game. The Walking Dead has, with this last burst of completions, managed to get back over a 50% completion rate. This is drastically down from the previous completion rate of about 88% before "Episode 2" was released.

Top Arcade Games Completed

• The Walking Dead339

• Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition290

• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD218

• Magic: The Gathering - DotP 201361

• Kinect Fun Labs: Junk Fu42

• Harm's Way39

• Kinect Fun Labs: Mars Rover Landing37

• Kinect Fun Labs: Kinect Rush: Snapshot34

• Shoot Many Robots33

• UNO31

geoDefense was the most started and the most completed yet again, which must be approaching a record for WP games that actually cost money. Both Sudoku (WP) and Minesweeper (WP) are not only free, but such frequent guests of this chart that they might as well just be given permanent spots.

Top Windows Phone Games Completed

• geoDefense (WP)45

• Shuffle Party (WP)35

• Mush (WP)28

• Sudoku (WP)26

• Breeze (WP)25

• Splinter Cell: Conviction (WP)25

• Gun Bros (WP)20

• Toy Soldiers: Boot Camp (WP)17

• Minesweeper (WP)17

• Doodle God (WP)16

Achievements Won
41,781 TrueAchievements gamers won a total of 526,984 achievements online between them (44,792 different achievements).

Fun fact: Every game on this chart was released last year.

Top Retail Achievements Won

• Kindred Judgement in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim298

• Beyond Death in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim290

• Apex in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3270

• Lost to the Ages in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim261

• A New You in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim257

• Awakening in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim257

• Auriel's Bow in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim255

• Soul Tear in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim250

• One-Armed Bandit in Batman: Arkham City246

• Savior in Batman: Arkham City240

One lone Full House Poker achievement breaks up the dominance of the Hawk Man. For once, I can say that I helped with this chart as I earned most of those Tony Hawk achievements myself.

Top Arcade Achievements Won

• Going Back to Cali in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD675

• A Mall Rat in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD647

• Danger Zone in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD647

• School's Out in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD641

• Da Jam in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD634

• Uh huh, Oui Oui in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD560

• Gap Skiing in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD539

• Alpha Dog in Full House Poker479

• Old School in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD427

• This. is. SKATEBOARDING! in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD425

The gap between the number of WP achievements won and retail is far smaller then it ever has been before since we started tracking stats. During the Summer of Arcade, every platform *but* XBLA suffers in overall numbers.

Top Windows Phone Achievements Won

• Easy Start in geoDefense (WP)158

• Close Call in geoDefense (WP)145

• Green Machine in geoDefense (WP)141

• Red Menace in geoDefense (WP)141

• Blue Thunder in geoDefense (WP)140

• Scout in Asphalt 5 (WP)138

• Shocking And Awe in geoDefense (WP)135

• The Assassin in Contract Killer (WP)125

• Rookie in Asphalt 5 (WP)123

• Medium Start in geoDefense (WP)119

Total TrueAchievements won by Genre

Originally, I was wondering why Action-Adventure took the top spot. Then it dawned on me that the three super-hero titles towards the top of the retail chart are all under that genre. Then it made sense that when Marvel and DC work for a common goal, they can achieve it with flying colors.

Well, except for making Access seem like an interesting character.

Yes, it does amuse me that it is very likely only one of you got that reference.

• Action-Adventure4,058,018

• Shooter3,896,604

• Role-Playing2,203,245

• Sports1,770,859

• Action1,622,037

• Racing860,967

• Platformer436,221

• Music & Rhythm332,058

• Simulation302,722

• Puzzle279,849

Join me next week when we take a close look at the performance of Deadlight. Oh, and also start crying out for a new retail title to make us sit up and take notice. These dog days of summer are always dreadfully boring.