Xbox 360 Most-Played Sees Gears In Charge

Via the weblog of staffer Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb, Microsoft has announced the year's top most-played Xbox 360 games for 2006, with Epic's Gears of War taking the top position, and UNO topping Xbox Arcade Live sales for the year. The top Xbox 360 titles, compiled by number of unique GamerTags that have played the game, was topped Epic's hit shooter Gears of War, followed by console pack-in puzzler Hexic HD, Call of Duty 2, Ghost Recon 3, and Bethesda's RPG Oblivion. Xbox Live Arcade titles also found themselves amongst the ranks of the most played, with UNO, Geometry Wars Evolved, and Texas Hold 'em taking the 9th, 12th, and 14th positions, respectively. UNO also found itself at the top of the most-purchased Xbox Live Arcade titles, followed by Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting, Geometry Wars Evolved, Marble Blast Ultra, and Namco classic PAC-MAN. While the Live Arcade list was dominated primarily by classic arcade and PC ports, Arcade originals like Bankshot Billiards 2, Texas Hold 'em, Small Arms, Cloning Clyde, and LUMINES LIVE! filled out the bottom half of the top 20at 11th, 15th, and 18-20th, respectively. Sports and shooters dominated the original Xbox titles being played over Xbox Live, topped, as expected, by Microsoft's hit Halo 2, followed by EA's Battlefield 2: MC, Star Wars: Battlfront 2, Madden NFL 2006, and Valve's Counter-Strike.