Most-Played Xbox Live Games List Updated 3

Larry Hryb, Xbox Live Director of Programming at Microsoft, has posted a list of the top 10 most-played games over Xbox Live to his personal blog. As with all instances of Hryb's chart, it must come with a caveat that all Xbox 360 games are "Live Aware" and apparently count as logged onto Live even when in single-player mode, which helps account for their proliferation through the top 10. Despite the technical bias toward 360 games, #1 on the list, is still the Halo 2 for Xbox 360, one of only two original Xbox games still making the charts. Despite its status as an Xbox game, it still has one of the most complete Live implantations, and its enhanced backward-compatible play on the 360 means it's a game that can easily make the transition between consoles. The other standard Xbox title to make the list is Battlefield 2: Modern Combat at #9, which has been slowly falling down the chart as more 360 games are released. In second place is Call of Duty 2, followed by EA's Fight Night Round 3, which combines the 360's vaunted graphical prowess with simple-to-understand controls for its popularity. Another first-person shooter, Perfect Dark Zero, comes in at #4, followed by Dead or Alive 4 at #5, whose tournament scene has been taking advantage of the game's Live play. Project Gotham Racing 3, a fairly realistic racing simulator, takes sixth place on the XBL list. The somewhat less realistic racer Need for Speed: Most Wanted comes in seventh on the chart. Eighth place is unusual in that it's a downloadable demo rather than a full game; interest in The Outfit is very high to judge from its standing on the chart. Finally, finishing out the list is the Xbox 360 version of Madden NFL 06 at #10.