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NPD Flashback: The top 50 best selling PS1 games.

I thought I'd stroll down memory lane and look at the best selling PSX games in NA. Some may be surprised by what makes the list, numbers are from the NPD as of 2005. There's a lot more variety in this list then you would expect, and it will give some outsiders some insight on NA gaming tastes (Granted several countries in Europe would have a similar list with some more Euro centric games splattered about and Rayman likely being much higher.)

So here are the top 50 best selling PSX games:

  1. 3,261,557 PSX Gran Turismo (Sony)
  2. 3,156,882 PSX Gran Turismo 2 (Sony)
  3. 3,120,190 PSX Crash Bandicoot 2 (Sony)
  4. 3,056,691 PSX Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (Sony)
  5. 2,948,058 PSX Frogger (Atari)
  6. 2,756,288 PSX Spyro the Dragon (Sony)
  7. 2,751,213 PSX Crash Bandicoot (Sony)
  8. 2,701,372 PSX Tekken 3 (Namco)
  9. 2,628,911 PSX Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Activision)
  10. 2,623,706 PSX Driver (Activision)
  11. 2,513,441 PSX Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (Activision)
  12. 2,457,962 PSX Final Fantasy VII (SquareSoft)
  13. 2,435,785 PSX Metal Gear Solid (Konami)
  14. 2,197,590 PSX WWE Warzone (Acclaim)
  15. 2,056,246 PSX Driver 2 (Atari)
  16. 2,031,548 PSX Namco Museum Vol. 3 (Namco)
  17. 1,913,888 PSX Final Fantasy VIII (SquareSoft)
  18. 1,909,410 PSX Crash Team Racing (Sony)
  19. 1,885,919 PSX Resident Evil (Capcom)
  20. 1,872,640 PSX Tomb Raider (Eidos)
  21. 1,782,076 PSX Tomb Raider 2 (Eidos)
  22. 1,753,966 PSX Tekken 2 (Namco)
  23. 1,748,631 PSX Resident Evil 2 (Capcom)
  24. 1,743,961 PSX Twisted Metal 2 (Sony)
  25. 1,740,721 PSX Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto's Rage (Sony)
  26. 1,699,910 PSX Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts)
  27. 1,657,490 PSX Namco Museum Vol. 1 (Namco)
  28. 1,570,440 PSX WWF Smackdown! 2: Know Your Role (THQ)
  29. 1,545,974 PSX Syphon Filter (Sony)
  30. 1,534,029 PSX Tetris Plus (Jaleco)
  31. 1,505,485 PSX A Bug's Life (Sony)
  32. 1,495,792 PSX Spider-Man (Activision)
  33. 1,456,265 PSX Rugrats: Search Reptar (THQ)
  34. 1,450,096 PSX Mortal Kombat Trilogy (Midway)
  35. 1,423,771 PSX Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Sony)
  36. 1,420,846 PSX 007: Tomorrow Never Dies (Electronic Arts)
  37. 1,367,214 PSX Rayman (Ubisoft)
  38. 1,366,186 PSX WWF Smackdown! (THQ)
  39. 1,347,964 PSX Final Fantasy IX (SquareSoft)
  40. 1,311,955 PSX NFL Gameday 98 (Sony)
  41. 1,299,038 PSX Madden NFL 99 (Electronic Arts)
  42. 1,298,364 PSX Tomb Raider 3 (Eidos)
  43. 1,281,620 PSX Madden NFL 2000 (Electronic Arts)
  44. 1,273,027 PSX Spec Ops (Take 2 Interactive)
  45. 1,246,978 PSX Cool Boarders 3 (Sony)
  46. 1,245,866 PSX Medal of Honor (Electronic Arts)
  47. 1,219,671 PSX Cool Boarders 2 (Sony)
  48. 1,215,784 PSX Need for Speed: High Stakes (Electronic Arts)
  49. 1,210,246 PSX Madden NFL 2001 (Electronic Arts)
  50. 1,188,386 PSX Croc: Legend of Gobbos (Fox Interactive)
 

jdforge

Banned
15 of the 50 developed or published by Sony. That’s 30% first party. It would be interesting to compare that against N64.
 

PC version also sold over 1 million.

Frogger was the most bizarre popular game I've ever seen, even at the bargain bin price, just everyone kept buying it for some reason. None of the other classic remake games did even close to as well.
 

I think the main thing is that for many people it was their first cheap game and easy second game purchase because the initial price was already lower than most games. Then it dropped quickly. It was also the first or second "remade in 3D classic" so it being early before the Missile Commands and Q*berts benefited it a lot with the nostalgia crowd. Also again, easy game purchase for your kid if you want to get them 2-3 games with a PSX.
 

Tarkus98

Member
Surprised at Frogger being so far up and FFVII so far down the list, relatively speaking.
Still wonder why 989 Studios got shuddered and Gameday going away. In my opinion it was better then Madden and a sports game I really looked forward to each year (for the few years it existed). I had heard that EA was getting upset at the competition and Sony canned it for fear of losing support from EA. No idea how true that was.
Lots of other great games on the list along with the great memories.
Kingsfield needs to be there.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
You could give me a thousand guesses about the top 5, and I would not have come up with Frogger.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Still wonder why 989 Studios got shuddered and Gameday going away. In my opinion it was better then Madden and a sports game I really looked forward to each year (for the few years it existed)..

Gameday 99 was so fun.

511SXZE4T3L.jpg


RIP in peace
 

lingpanda

Member
If I'm ever asked to define PSX by a game. It would be Gran Turismo or Tekken. Gran Turismo was just on another level as far as driving games go. Honourable mention would go to Frogger.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Hmmm... Interesting that the top selling N64 games sold much more than the top selling games on PSone but the PSone has a lot of million seller (50+) than what the N64 has (28).
 

Daniel Thomas MacInnes

GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Wow, it's fascinating to see that Tomb Raider on PSX outsold its Saturn cousin by 10-1. That has to hurt.

What impresses me about this list is how diverse the software titles are and how evenly the sales are down the list. There never was a massive blockbuster hit ala Super Mario, but instead a steady supply of great hits that just kept dropping. If you were a Playstation fan, you were never going to become bored.

And Frogger sold nearly 3 million copies? Wow, there's a surprise. It only goes to show you that "Golden Era" videogames never go out of style.
 

Von Hugh

Member
There's the behemoth of Gran Turismo, but aside from Driver there really aren't any other racing games. No Colin McRae Rally or V-Rally or anything like that. Well, Need for Speed is there. I was certain that at least Colin McRae would have been more popular.
 
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Great Hair

Banned
Strange, the list shared by Matt shows Crash on 1º, MGS 13º (not 8th). Frogger didnt make the cut ...

 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Out of that list of 50, I had 8.

Surprised Castelvania SotN and Ace Combat games didn't make it.

Also surprised many original games like TR and RE sold more than the sequels. Sequels are generally better and come out when there's a bigger user base and already a franchise following. You'd think a sequel should sell way more.

And ya, what's up with Frogger and Namco Museum Hits?
 
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Airbus Jr

Banned
So Final Fantasy VII which is regarded as the greatest final fantasy game ever made are sitting at approx 2,4 mill and FR XV made approx 11 million what a time to be alive
 
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JimiNutz

Banned
Looking at the PS1 and N64 lists I'd say that the N64 actually had the better top 20 games which really surprised me as I had always viewed the PS1 library as being much better.

I guess the PS1 library had a lot more depth and variety but if you look at the top 20 selling games alone then the N64 was pretty amazing.
 

EssKayZee

Member
So many great memories in here. GT, Crash, Spyro, Driver, MGS, Tekken 3, FFVII, Syphon Filter, WWF Smackdown 2, CTR. Surprised by the absence of Silent Hills, Parasite Eve, Dino Crisis, Ace Combat, Ridge Racer.

Strange, the list shared by Matt shows Crash on 1º, MGS 13º (not 8th). Frogger didnt make the cut ...


^That's based on dollar sales
 

Trogdor1123

Member
This is interesting to me from a business perspective. Many of the games that were "smash" hits back then with those numbers would be complete flops now. The market cannot continue on its path it's on now
 

Breakage

Member
You shouldn't be, Activision spammed the franchise dry for a reason lol.

Tony Hawk was huge (maybe a bit too huge)
Yeah, true. But people always mention MGS and FF7 when talking about the PlayStation's iconic titles. I knew THPS was popular, but never thought it would do more units in NA than those games.
 
Yeah, true. But people always mention MGS and FF7 when talking about the PlayStation's iconic titles. I knew THPS was popular, but never thought it would do more units in NA than those games.

The sales of Japanese games on old PS consoles is a bit exaggerated in America. As well as the theory that Square/FF7 made Jrpgs popular. Only 3 Jrpgs are on the list and they are FF7, 8, and 9.
 

Breakage

Member
The sales of Japanese games on old PS consoles is a bit exaggerated in America. As well as the theory that Square/FF7 made Jrpgs popular. Only 3 Jrpgs are on the list and they are FF7, 8, and 9.
Oh yeah, just realised that – and they are all FF games, too. That's interesting.
 

cryptoadam

Banned
I have to say I am surprised that 64 top games sold more than PS top games. Sure PS probably pushed more total software, but for how many PS1 were sold you would think they would have a couple of 5 million sellers on there.

I guess because there was so much software the sales were more spread out.
 
I have to say I am surprised that 64 top games sold more than PS top games. Sure PS probably pushed more total software, but for how many PS1 were sold you would think they would have a couple of 5 million sellers on there.

I guess because there was so much software the sales were more spread out.

A good chunk of the N64's top selling games were heavily or modestly bundled with the console, while a lot of the top PSX games were not. Shouldn't be too surprising.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
I wish I could go back in time to the ps1 days... So many hours playing nearly all of those games (about 90% of them). 1996 to 1999 were probably the happiest years of my life!
 

underberg

Member
As of 2005?

Weird because these data have been circulating online since Summer 2004! Proof: https://www.ign.com/boards/threads/overall-us-sales-chart-as-of-august-2004.64188421/

Also, in this very list (the same from which the user got data: you can check it by yourself, numbers are the S-A-M-E) there is Parasite Eve at 749,436 units, showing that it is definitely one of the best selling jRPG as of at least 2004. Therefore, the game should be in the best-selling jRPGs list posted by the user in another thread.

Can you see the contradictions now?
 
I wish I could go back in time to the ps1 days... So many hours playing nearly all of those games (about 90% of them). 1996 to 1999 were probably the happiest years of my life!

It still amazes me seeing the PSX success in real time. It just blew opened the doors to all demographics after post-2600 consoles started aiming for specific groups. It manage to attract all ages like the old consoles did but multiple it by a magnitude.
 
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