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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - North America
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Grand Theft Auto 4 Set to Beat Halo 3
May 01, 2008
Whatever you think about the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the latest version (Grand Theft Auto 4) of the sex, guns and crime riddled video game is set to break all sorts of industry records. It is expected that Grand Theft Auto 4 will handily beat last year's record for sales, held by Microsoft's Halo 3 - and internet search data bears that out.
We've already seen searches for Grand Theft Auto 4 overtake those for Halo 3 by 22% comparing the week before the release of both games. Comparing the share of US Internet searches for the combined "grand theft auto 4" and "grand theft auto iv" last week (week to 26th April 2007) to the share of US Internet searches for "halo 3" the week prior to that game's release (22 September 2007), searches for Grand Theft Auto 4 were 22% higher than for Halo 3.
Last week, searches for "grand theft auto 4" and "grand theft auto iv" were sending visits to gaming sites and social networks. Retailers were not among the top websites receiving traffic from searches for the game. It is interesting that the so-called "game of the year" has attracted so little attention from the big retailers. This is likely a result of the controversy surrounding the game.
The top website receiving traffic for searches for the game was Rockstar Games (the studio that produced the game). Rockstar Games saw its website traffic soar on 29th April, the day of the release. Comparing the day of release (29th April) to a week prior, visits jumped more than 4-times. The top source of traffic that day was MySpace.com. This is likely a result of fans discussing the new game on the social network in one of the many forums on the topic.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 07:49 AM
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Comments
It's good to see a smaller company outperform Microsoft. It just shows how much success is still to be made in the industry.
Posted by Marlon | May 2, 2008 09:32 AM
This doesn't particularly surprise me. The GTA franchise has always had a broader appeal than Halo - not to mention the fact that GTA isn't limited to one console.
Posted by Mobby | May 7, 2008 10:40 AM
I personally am glad to hear this, even though the graph shows only how many people looked up the games on the internet but I wouldnt be surprised if any day now Rockstar pronounces that they have more sells than Halo 3. What i think about how both the games play Id have to say GTA4 this is because i think halo 3 is getting way to old and I hope everone else thinks so to.
Posted by Dan | May 10, 2008 10:34 AM
I personally am glad to hear this, even though the graph shows only how many people looked up the games on the internet but I wouldnt be surprised if any day now Rockstar pronounces that they have more sells than Halo 3. What i think about how both the games play Id have to say GTA4 this is because i think halo 3 is getting way to old and I hope everone else thinks so to.
Posted by Dan | May 10, 2008 10:34 AM
That graph means nothing with labels
Posted by Bob | May 1, 2008 09:36 AM