Xbox Live Arcade breaks sales records in August

Xbox Live Arcade is bringing 360 owners a cornucopia of fantastic games, and bucketloads of cash for the jolly green giant. According to a recent report by the Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE), August marked a record-breaking month for Xbox Live Arcade’s revenue, totaling about $17.5 million USD, an impressive 6% increase over last year’s record of $16.6 million.

Helping to push sales to such lofty heights took a combination of efforts. One major source of purchasing fever was the Xbox “Summer of Arcade” promo, where several games were sold at discounted prices. The other main push for sales were several blockbusting titles, with 9 out of the top 10 grossing over half a million dollars each. “Monday Night Combat” topped the charts as #1 with 187,000 units sold (at $2.8M revenue). Second place goes to “Castlevania: Harmony of Despair” at 131,000 units, tailed closely by “LIMBO” at 128,000 copies sold.

One game in particular is notable for breaking 1 million copies sold. “Trials HD” is only the forth Xbox Live Arcade to break the million mark by selling 1,005,000 by the end of August 2010. To date, only 3 other games have reached this golden achievement, including “Uno“, “Castle Crashers“, and “Battlefield 1943“.

The list of all the top ten sellers for August 2010, sorted by revenue, are the following:

1. Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment) – 187,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
2. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (Konami) – 131,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
3. LIMBO (Playdead) – 128,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
4. Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light (Crystal Dynamics) – 107,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Ubisoft) – 79,000 units (800 Microsoft Points)
6. Hydro Thunder Hurricane (WB Games) – 50,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
7. Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) – 47,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
8. Shank (Klei Entertainment Inc) – 41,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)
9. Deadliest Warrior (Pipeworks Software) – 55,000 units (800 Microsoft Points)
10. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) – 31,000 units (1200 Microsoft Points)