The 20 most popular Xbox 360 retail games of 2009

Larry Hryb, the director of programming at Microsoft Xbox Live, has revealed 2009's most popular Xbox 360 retail titles based on online activity. Seven were first-person shooters, six were thrid-person shooters, there were two each of role-playing games, music games, and sports games, and one game was free.

Over 2009 as a whole, it was September 2007's game Halo 3 that reigned supreme. The two Call of Duty games developed by Infinity Ward, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and its November follow-up Modern Warfare 2 beat the 2008 game in the Call of Duty series, World at War. In fact, with only two months of playtime between its release and the end of 2009, Modern Warfare 2 made it into third position.

The Xbox 360 version of popular US quiz show 1 vs 100 was made available as a playable pre-release version halfway through the year, and then officially in November. Players can progress from being a member of the crowd, the hundred-person mob, to "The One" by answering questions speedily and accurately. The dangling carrot takes the form of winning out over 100 other brains, and potential prizes by way of up to 10,000 Microsoft Points ($125/€115) which can be used to fund game purchases.

Interestingly, the Japanese version of Resident Evil 5 placed higher than its North American and European equivalent.

Top 20 Xbox 360 Live Games, 2009
1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty 4
3. Modern Warfare 2
4. Call of Duty: WaW
5. Gears of War 2
6. GTA IV
7. Left 4 Dead
8. Halo 3: ODST
9. FABLE II Episode 1
10. ??????????? (BioHazard 5 / Resident Evil 5)
11. Halo Wars dem o
12 . Resident Evil 5
13. Fallout 3
14. UFC 2009 Undisputed demo
15. Left 4 Dead 2 demo
16. Gears of War
17. 1 vs 100
18. Guitar Hero World Tour
19. Guitar Hero III
20. FIFA 09