Halo 3, Castle Crashers Top Xbox Live, XBLA In 2008

Bungie's Halo 3 was the most popular game played online via Xbox Live during the year, and The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers was the most-downloaded Xbox Live Arcade title. Halo 2 remained the most popular online title for the original Xbox. Xbox Live programming director Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb revealed the year's top 20 data on his popular Major Nelson blog. Although the online-play specific charts were based on the number of unique users playing each game, no specific figures were revealed. The second most popular title played on Xbox 360 Live service was Activision’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, followed by Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV and Epic’s Gears of War 2. A number of demos also made the top 20 -- the highest-ranked of these was Electronic Arts' Battlefield: Bad Company at number eight – with the full game at number 14. Not only was Castle Crashers the most popular full-version download on Xbox Live Arcade, ranked by (unspecified) number of total downloads, the game also made it to number 17 in the Xbox Live multiplayer chart – despite considerable controversy over the stability of its online co-operative mode. The second most popular Xbox Live Arcade game was the Bizarre Creations developed Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, followed by Jonathan Blow’s Braid, NinjaBee’s A Kingdom for Keflings and Carbonated Games’ UNO. The full set of charts is as follows: Top Xbox Live titles on Xbox 360: 1. Halo 3 (Microsoft) 2. Call of Duty 4 (Activision) 3. Grand Theft Auto IV (Take-Two/Rockstar) 4. Gears of War 2 (Microsoft) 5. Gears of War (Microsoft) 6. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision) 7. Guitar Hero III (Activision) 8. Battlefield: Bad Company demo (EA) 9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo (LucasArts) 10. Rock Band (EA) 11. Fable II (EA) 12. Mirror’s Edge demo (EA) 13. Madden NFL 09 (EA) 14. Battlefield: Bad Company (EA) 15. Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Ubisoft) 16. UNO (Microsoft) 17. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) 18. Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer beta (Activision) 19. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft) 20. Too Human demo (Microsoft) Top Xbox Live Arcade titles: 1. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) 2. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 (Activision) 3. Braid (Microsoft) 4. A Kingdom for Keflings (Microsoft) 5. UNO (Microsoft) 6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Capcom) 7. Fable II Pub Games (Microsoft) 8. Duke Nukem 3D (3D Realms) 9. Bionic Commando: Rearmed (Capcom) 10. Worms (Team 17) 11. SoulCalibur (Namco Bandai) 12. Portal: Still Alive (Microsoft) 13. Doom (Activision) 14. 1942: Joint Strike (Capcom) 15. Bomberman Live (Hudson Soft) 16. Mega Man 9 (Capcom) 17. N+ (Metanet Software) 18. Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 (Capcom) 19. Marble Blast Ultra (GarageGames) 20. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Midway)