- [Falcon] When games sell really well, part of that might be that the game is great, part of it might be hype, but the circumstances around a highly successful game is, more often than not, interesting. Hi folks, it's Falcon, and today on Gameranx, "10 Reasons Why These Games
Sold Over 20 Million Copies." Starting off with number 10, it's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare." This game came out in 2019 and as a yearly franchise, the COD games, they don't usually get a lot of time to innovate. But when they decided to reboot one of the most beloved
entries of the franchise, "Call of Duty 4: Modern
Warfare" from 2007, they really pulled out all the stops. This is gonna be a new 'Call of Duty,' with an updated engine, new movement abilities like the tactical sprint, changes to aiming, the ability to mount. And the campaign, the Modern warfare campaign, still remains a high water mark for the series in terms of visuals alone. The 'Clean House' mission looks almost photorealistic in this version of the game. (background chatter) (footsteps) - I'll get the on kettle on. - [Falcon] Probably the biggest draw, or at least the thing
that kept people playing, was 'Warzone,' the game's
battle royale mode. They made some smart changes from the standard battle royale formula, like the whole gulag mechanic, and in general just feels
really good to play. (bombs exploding) There's a lot of reasons why this entry in the franchise sold so well, but for me I think it's all the little details. Stuff like how you could do some real environmental damage, like pop basketballs, cause folding chairs to close when you hit them. I mean, so much stuff in this world can be broken and damaged, which is a far cry from previous Call of Duty games, which were very static. This attention to detail in this game just blows the rest of the franchise outta the water. Molotovs actually dropped little embers on the ground while you're holding it, your guy only throws away magazines when all the ammo is depleted, your reload animations are often completely different when you have the slight-of-hand perk. In the old games, they'd just speed up the reload animation, but in this game, it actually changes them completely a lot of the time. When the game came out, it was basically a guaranteed success. First off it's 'Call of Duty,' it's already set up for success obviously. That's a big reason why this one sold 20 million copies. I mean, it probably would have, even if it was a Battlefield
2042-style disaster. I don't know, maybe not 20. If it was universally hated... I don't really know. But the devs also clearly put a lot of time and effort into this one and that ends up making it a huge step forward for the series, and just a really high quality game. When you've got the big
marketing machine behind what is actually a very good game, it's usually gonna be
a pretty big success. At number nine is Telltale's
"The Walking Dead." Might be hard to believe but according to Telltale, back in 2017, their "Walking Dead" series has sold over 50 million episodes worldwide, which sounds like an absurd amount for an adventure game, because it is. That's crazy. Before "Walking Dead" made 'em huge, at least for a little while, Telltale was putting out
small, episodic adventure games that didn't have a lot
of mainstream appeal. Don't get me wrong, stuff like "Sam & Max," their "Monkey Island" sequel, and "Strong Bad's Cool Game
For Attractive People," were all pretty great for what they were, but none of that was ever gonna sell those types of numbers. And there really wasn't any guarantee this game would do well either. Telltale had dipped their toes into more cinematic games, with the mostly forgotten
"Jurassic Park" game, which honestly wasn't very good, and a lot of fans had recently turned on "The Walking Dead" show with its abysmally slow second season. Like, the first season
of that show is so good, and then, well, that's all I need to say. These games though could
have wound up being a bomb pretty easily. Did you know that Clementine, arguably the main character of the entire series, was almost cut from the first game? Just weeks before recording audio, the devs were arguing whether players would
find Clementine annoying and if they would resent having to protect her. The interesting thing about these games is that they're not really about little details, they're more about really big moments. In terms of gameplay, there's really not a
whole lot going on here. It's dialogue mixed with the occasional QTE. (ominous music) - Get away from me! - [Falcon] Most of them lead to death if you fail 'em. It really is mostly just the story that drew people in, and "The Walking Dead" season one came out at the best possible time, when there was a demand for a more mature story in games, but the big AAAs were not providing that. "The Last of Us" was about a year away and that was really the harbinger for that type of game. The story of Lee and Clementine resonated with people in a way you almost never really see in games. I know people who really balled at the ending of the season
one, total waterworks. I'm not talking about
myself at all, at all! That's the kind of effect this game had on people who are not me. For whatever reason, it just worked on all those other people. At number eight is "The
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim." After the success of games like "Oblivion" and "Fallout 3," the success of "Skyrim"
was pretty much assured, but that doesn't mean that the game isn't still worthy of all of its sales. We don't know exactly how many copies Skyrim has sold since it came out back in 2011, but Todd Howard has said that the game has sold well
over 30 million copies. Honestly, I think that's probably low, considering how long it's been out, and the fact that it's
still sells all right for a game that old. This game's so popular that its own success has become basically a meme. It's one of the most
popular games of all time and there are a lot of reasons for that. But for me, the best part of Skyrim is just screwing around in the world. Yeah, there's an epic story to follow, but I kind of blasted
through that pretty quick, and then just started messing around. There's some really goofy and unnecessary things you can just do for fun. That and the modding scene, that's a huge reason for the game's success as well. There's so many things about "Skyrim" that make it stand out compared to other RPGs though. The way the game lets you actually pick up objects and manipulate 'em in the world, that, of course, led people to the bucket trick, which seems so ridiculous. It has to be intentional, but it wasn't intentional. They just left it in 'cause it was really funny. Let you know what I'm talking about, you can drop a bucket on a shopkeeper's head
and rob him blind, and... (serene music) Their vision is blocked so they can't see you, and you can just take everything. Nothing happens. You're fine. It's goofy but it's a great example of the many kind of interactions going on in "Skyrim "that just aren't possible in most RPGs. Just the fact you can
steal things is unusual, compared to a lot of other games, but there's a whole entire line of sight mechanic. You can pick up random objects, you can actually put them on somebody's head and it actually does something. Very few RPGs give you
that level of freedom, and "Skyrim" is from 2011. There's just so much stuff you can do from messing with bugs too; Causing NPCs to fight each other by dropping weapons on the ground, to creating ridiculously
overpowered spells with seemingly incompatible
magic combinations. There's almost too much to talk about with "Skyrim." We're only scratching the surface here. At number seven is "The Last of Us," easily Naughty Dog's
most successful series. Managed to sell 6 million copies in its first year alone. The franchise has sold 37 million in total in the last nine years. That is just an incredible achievement for what is primarily a single player experience. I mean, the original release had a actually pretty popular multiplayer mode but the re-release that
followed didn't include it, so I think most people think of the series as single player only. The "Uncharted" games proved
Naughty Dog could pull off cinematic storytelling, but "The Last of Us" really elevated what the company was doing. Everything in it felt
years ahead of its time. The character models, the environments, animations, everything was a cut above everything else at the time. The graphics, if you go
back to the 2013 original, aren't that impressive anymore, but everything else in
the game sure holds up. Combat is extremely tense. Some really super cool little details about how you can scare enemies with an empty gun, but if you try to fire it and reveal you're outta ammo, they notice and they'll start attacking. (grunting) The game's filled with
little details like that which make it feel more believable. There's a part early on where, depending on what you do, you can clear out or ignore a house filled with zombie-like infected. And depending on what you do, when you open a locked door close by, the characters will either whisper or speak normally. - Okay, ta-da. - Good job. - [Falcon] I've been
playing the game since it came out on PS3, and I didn't know about that until embarrassingly recently. Of course, the real reason this game is so popular is the story, which is of course fantastic, tons of little details
they manage to sneak in. They only enhance the experience though. At number six is "Super Mario World." With the movie currently out there smashing records and dominating Hollywood, it's an important reminder of the seemingly eternal power of "Mario." The series in total has sold, and this is apparently true, a freakishly absurd 830
million units worldwide, which means it's literally the best selling video game franchise of all time. Like, when Mario says, "I'm number one," he means it. Take any random game in the series, it's probably sold more than 20 million. To directly quote Nintendo... - "Wha! "Yah! "Wa-ha!" - [Falcon] I'm sorry. But I want to focus on one of the biggest and best games in the world, 1990s "Super Mario World." Over its many iterations and re-releases, this one entry managed to sell over 34 million copies. Not as much as "Super Mario Brothers 3," but it beats "Super Mario
64" by a few million. Not really a contest though. These games have all
done ridiculously well, and for good reason. What makes "Super Mario
World" special though is how open it is for a side scrolling
adventure game in 1990. The world map isn't just a place you can go to select the level. It changes drastically depending on how you complete a stage, whether you go to the Switch Palace, and where you decide to go. What's really fun about this game in particular is that if you'd stick to the standard path, the game can be completed in just a couple hours, but there's a lot more to it if you get out and explore. There's secret exits that lead to new levels, alternate pathways, and even an entire secret world which has its own super
secret area to find. The process of discovery is really what makes this game great, and there's so many ways you can tackle any given obstacle. And they even give you
an alternate entrance to the last level to make things easier, if you're clever. All that, and for some reason, they put in a secret
that completely changes the kind of weather in the over-world and swaps out enemies for whatever reason. If you're a kid, a game like this makes it feel like anything is possible, and that's of course why a kid plays video games, so why every kid bugged their parents for months to get it. At number five is "Dying Light." Believe it or not, "Dying Light," part of the 20 million Copies Club. On February 2nd, 2023, the games developer, Techland, stated the series had lifetime sales that exceeded 30 million, with the lion's share of those coming from the first game, which might sound crazy to you but so is the power of the zombie game, and "Dying Light" is one of the best. In this case, it's not like "The Walking Dead" or "The Last of Us" where there's a real story and that's the big draw. With "Dying Light," the best parts are the gameplay. The free running, just how satisfying it is to smash zombies and parkour around like a lunatic. That's what makes it great. It's just super fun. (grunting)
(zombies heaving) Where most open world beams give you a pretty limited set of abilities, "Dying Light" lets you grab enemies, drop kick 'em through the air, just go all around nuts. When enough skills are unlocked, you can pull off some pretty crazy moves. You can run circles around enemies. It's a stark contrast to a lot of open world zombie games. Throw in the terrifying and exciting night sections, which, for some reason, were altered for the sequel, and the many absolutely
cracked Easter eggs that you can find with some creativity, put all that stuff together, you got a game that's really fun to mess with. Seriously, this extended
Super Mario Easter egg, we've talked about it a few times on the channel, it's one of the best of all time. It's super dumb, but they really went all out with it. (grunting)
(upbeat music) It's kind of one of the classic open world "This is what makes it
great" things though. There's so many little details in "Dying Light" that are just lightning in a bottle, and for whatever reason, the whole thing just came together in the best possible way. Story's nothing the right home about, but everything else, fantastic. At number four is "Legend of
Zelda: Breath of the Wild." Though nowhere close to the sales of the Super Mario franchise, "The Legend of Zelda" is no slouch. As of May 2023, the series has sold over 150 million units worldwide. 31 million of those are from "Breath of the Wild Alone," which is a staggering amount that's significantly higher than any other game in the series up to that point, and for good reason. It was a massive shift in the direction of the Zelda series, and a huge gamble, but it paid off in a big way. Those sales numbers alone confirm it. But ignoring that, it's just a fantastic game. The things that really make it great though are things people probably wouldn't normally associate with a "Zelda" game. For instance, the physics simulation, to say the very least, is one of the best in the business. Just something as simple as chopping down a log feels good. When the game tasks you with solving puzzles using physics, that's when things get creative. In previous "Zelda" games, you had to play by the game's rules, but in "Breath of the Wild," you don't. You can experiment and do things your own way. Like this shrine, we're supposed to roll
a ball through a maze, we've talked about this
one before as well, but normally that's a
pretty tedious process if you do it the way they designed it to be done. But with the advanced physics engine, you can just go nuts and flip the entire platform over, use it to bump the ball into the target in seconds instead. Basically, a huge game of ping pong with a weird, weird paddle. The game's filled with little tricks and exploits like that, and that's not even talking about all the crazy and entertaining game-breaking bugs people have discovered. (animal noises) What makes "Breath of the Wild" so great, and a big part of what makes it so popular though, is it feels like the ultimate sandbox. They give you the tools, but it's up to you to decide how to use them. If you wanna brute force a puzzle, you are free to, and it's extremely liberating compared to how so many other open world games work. At number three is "Grand
Theft Auto V," duh! It's another one of those most popular games of all time. As of May 2023, this game has sold over
180 million copies. One game. That's a good 45% of the entire GTA franchise's sales, making it far and away the most popular title in the series. The thing that keeps the game alive and relevant is "Grant Theft Auto Online." But for me, what I enjoy is just the little details in "GTA 5." No other game in the series makes you feel like you're in a living, breathing world, like this one. There's so many unusual
little interactions and secrets to discover. There's mysterious little stories to find all over the place, like the infamous Mount Chiliad mystery, that never really ended up going anywhere; The Infinity Killer mystery, where you find strange clues all over the world. Stuff like this doesn't really serve a huge purpose in the game, but it's all fascinating to discover and it makes the world
feel so much bigger. They didn't have to put in a full mine shaft for you to explore, or a dead body of an
old celebrity in there, but they did. It's not just the world either. The NPCs are some of the best ever. One cool little detail is when you switch characters, the other two characters are still out there in the world and they're NPCs you can find, if you go looking. Amusingly enough, if
you follow 'em too much, they'll eventually get mad and punch you in the face. - All right then, come on! - [Falcon] It's completely unnecessary, but cool details like that keep
me coming back to the game. It's about 10 years old at this point, but it's still one of the best open world games in the business. At number two is "The
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt." Another duh! And I'll tell you this right now, number one is also a big duh. But during an investor call in May, CD Projekt RED announced
"The Witcher" series had sold over 75 million units worldwide, 50 coming from "The Witcher 3." Like, what really needs to be said? It's a triumph of both open world design and storytelling, and it deserves all the many accolades it ever got. It's not a game with as many systems as
something like "Skyrim." You can't manipulate the world like you could in "Skyrim," but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its own crazy details. The thing that makes "The
Witcher 3" stand out to me is they include the tiniest details in this massive open world setting. Stuff that, in any other game, would just be totally ignored, but it's included at such a level. Like the raven skull Yennefer uses at the beginning, in any other game that's a cut scene, has nothing to do with the game. But if you look, it's actually possible to find the raven skull in the open world. The same thing happens in the King's Gambit quest. Depending on your actions, the Queen could be sentenced to death by being chained to rocks. You never actually see this gruesome punishment in action, but it's possible to find the aftermath with the body chained to some random rocks, just as subscribed. It's this attention to detail that really makes the game stand out. Not just open world stuff either, the story can change drastically
depending on your actions. I'm not just talking about
the game here either. I also mean less drastic things, like your love interest. In most games, you get
locked outta flirting with another character if you do one. But if Geralt promises his heart to both Yennefer and Triss, it'll backfire spectacularly and you lose out on both of them. - This isn't funny. Come back. Triss, Yen. - [Falcon] "The Witcher 3" isn't just big, it's also reactive and lived in, in a way few open world games are. Remains one of the best open world games out there and earned every unit that it sold. And finally at number one, the biggest duh of all time, "Red Dead Redemption 2." May not have done GTA
numbers but Rockstar's magnum opus has sold 53
million units worldwide. In a just world, it'd probably be double that 'cause "Red Dead 2" is an incredible game in so many ways. The detail put into this
world is second to none. Rockstars are masters of the open world crime game, and they're at their top form here. The story is, of course, fantastic, but the real appeal of the game is the ability to live the outlaw lifestyle and explore the Wild West to see what kind of trouble you can get into. Robbing store owners is fun, and sometimes leads to
little secret stories, like this one, where you can rescue a kid being held against his will. - Just what the hell is going on here? - He was being a bad little boy, stealing candy from the store again. It's for his own good. - I'm not your little boy, you mad son of a... - Don't shoot me, please! Just leave us be. - Get these shackles off me, please. - [Falcon] Fires spread
surprisingly realistically, and if you shoot an NPC, then the next time they show up, they'll have a bandage on to show you where you shot them. No detail's too small for this game. John Marston uses his gun differently from Arthur Morgan. And depending on who you play as, the artwork in the journal
is better or worse. Buildings and railroads
get built up over time, and certain seemingly harmless NPC characters can become deadly, like this part where you get drugged by killers at the Aberdeen Pig Farm. - Ah, what the hell is that? - That's an old Aberdeen home recipe. That one right there's an 1894. - It feels like someone's
stabbing me in the head. - Come on, I thought I had a man here, not a boy. One more, and you and I both will go upstairs and have a lie down. - [Falcon] The game is just littered with little interactions like this. There's obvious stuff, like the secret UFO, but there's unnecessary and very easy-to-miss stuff too, like the entire missing princess story that's in the game for some reason, or the way the UI has
intentional misspellings when you're drunk. The amount of amazing details in "Red Dead 2" is just endless. There's so much to talk about here, but you get the idea. "RDR 2" has billed itself as the ultimate cowboy simulation, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg when talking about this game. It's incredible for so many reasons and it should have sold more. Rockstar could have at least put out a next generation version. They did it for "GTA 5" so why not "Red Dead 2?" Maybe we'll eventually see it though. That's all for today. Leave us a comment, let us know what you think. If you like this video, click "like." If you're not subscribed, now's a great time to do so. We upload brand new videos every day of the week. Best way to see them first is, of course, a subscription, so click "subscribe." Don't forget to enable notifications. And as always, we thank you very much for watching this video. I'm Falcon, you can follow me on Twitter, @FalconTheHero. We'll see you next time
right here on Gameranx.
