How many of the best selling Xbox 360 games do you think you’ve played or owned over the years? I reckon there’s a good chance it’s all 10, but keep on scrolling to find out!
Read this next bit first though; I’ve got a word count to hit, so the least you can do is humour my ramblings for a little while.
Remember the first time you turned on an Xbox 360? Everything about this console was incredible, and it remains the best selling Xbox console to date with 84 million units sold.
With better graphics came came greater worlds, impressive storylines, and characters that still float around our heads to this day.
Especially Number 2 which just doesn’t know when to give up!
Still, with a grand total of 2,154 Xbox 360 games out there, which are the 10 best selling Xbox 360 games of all time?
Ramble over; let’s get stuck in!
Table of Contents
1. Kinect Adventures! (2010)
- Total Sales – 24,000,000
With 24 million sales under its motion-sensor belt, the family-friendly Kinect Adventures is the best selling Xbox 360 game of all time!
After the success of the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft brought out Xbox Kinect, one of the best Xbox 360 accessories. The game came boxed with the peripheral and provided Wii sports style games for players to get stuck into.
Unlike the Wii, however, Kinect uses the players whole body as a controller through a motion capture camera.
That sees players moving left and right to steer rafts and flying by flapping their arms.
Duck, dodge, and smash your way through five minigames. Just don’t smash the TV; that’s an expensive fix.
It’s quite nice that such a family friendly title took the top spot in the best selling Xbox 360 games list.
It’s a shame it fell short of Wii sports’ 80.2 million sales, but I guess you can’t have everything!
2. Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
- Total Sales – 22,950,000
Sitting 78 million sales below Minecraft in the best selling games ever made list is Grand Theft Auto V.
Still, it outsold Minecraft on the Xbox 360, to that’s a small victory for Rockstar Games!
Head around San Andreas doing whatever the hell you want. There is a storyline to follow, three in fact, but that’s the general premise.
Follow three characters as you commit every felony under the sun!
Travel by road, air, on foot; nowhere is off limits. Wield all kinds of weapons as you pull off heists and shoot anyone that looks at you funny.
I think it’s safe to say that this is one of the most violent and shocking games on the console. And it’s the second best selling game for the console, which means that we’re all a little chaotic deep down!
3. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition (2012)
- Total Sales – 21,000,000
With a grand total of 238 million sales across all consoles, Minecraft is officially the best selling game of all time.
And it’s a Microsoft game, which I imagine they’re incredibly happy about.
Steve, Minecraft’s main character, drops into the third spot in our best selling Xbox 360 games, however, accounting for 21 million of that gargantuan total.
And, while he’s not as badass as the Master Chief, Steve is undoubtedly just as big a console mascot for the Microsoft brand.
I’ve spent hours watching Youtube videos of the things people have created in this game too. From Hyrule Castle to the Taj Mahal, the gaming community’s talents know no bounds.
I guess the main reason Minecraft is such a huge success is that it goes hand in hand with a massive imagination. It doesn’t require much skill to get started either which is great.
In survival mode, there are limited resources and the need to stay alive and fend for yourself. In creative mode, however, players may build anything their hearts desire.
Trust me; bock induced dreams are on the way very soon!
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)
- Total Sales – 14,720,000
Xbox 360 fans really went crazy for CoD! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 takes the 4th spot in this official list of the best selling Xbox 360 games, continuing the action from MW2.
Russia is invading the US and Europe (sounds a little familiar right now at the time of writing). Take control of Soap Mctavish, Frost, and Sandman.
These guys could compete with Star Fox and Falco Lombardi for the best names crew!
Unlike Counter Strike, one of the best selling original Xbox games, MW3 has a proper storyline to follow as well as an epic multiplayer mode.
There are also co-op modes too; Spec Ops and Survival Mode. Of the two, battling waves of enemies in Survival Mode is always my go-to option with mates.
Nothing sends your stress levels through the roof like it!
And once again, the graphics still look stellar 11 years later! Just look at that still above!
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)
- Total Sales – 14,550,000
Black Ops 2 might have been revolutionary, but it couldn’t have existed without Call of Duty Black Ops.
And the great thing is that, you play as Alex Mason, the protagonist for the 80s part of Black Ops 2.
Making $1 billion in its first week alone, Black Ops is ranked the 32nd best game of all time at the time of rating in terms of overall sales.
Ok, the money part is a great thing too, but not as cool as character development!
Black Ops is set in the 60s, with Alex Mason swapping flower power for shooting down bad guys. As part of the CIA, Mason is surviving through the perils of the Cold War.
It would be more helpful if he could remember what was going on, especially as he’s in charge of stopping chemical weapons from being used in his beloved United States.
Defeat your mates in the multiplayer mode, customise characters, and get into some serious sniper showdowns.
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012)
- Total Sales – 13,700,000
Call of Duty Black Ops II was pretty revolutionary back in the day. A warfare game that takes players through time, fighting in both the 1980s and a futuristic cold war set in 2025.
The twist; in the 80s, you play as soldier chasing a cartel leader who captures his friend, and in 2025 you play as the soldier’s son chasing the same villain.
Pretty cool, right?
Normally it’s just RPGs that tend to stray into non-linear timelines and multiple endings, but not this time. And to be honest, it works really well!
This is also the first CoD game to branch into futuristic warfare weapons and tactics. It made $500 million in its first 24 hours, so I guess it was always going to end up in this article one day!
7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
- Total Sales – 13,700,000
Skyrim hardly needs an introduction. It’s one of the most famous open-world titles of all time, for crying out loud, with over 200 awards under its belt.
Players take Dragonborn on a mission to kill a ginormously large dragon. The side quests are just as exciting as the main story, and the weaponry available will completely blow your mind.
Plus, any game with automatically generated AI speech to contend with the infinite amount of possibilities in game made in 2011 definitely deserves your time!
It’s eleven years since this game came out, and I’m still discovering things that I missed the first, third, and eighth time around of playing it.
While the game as a whole has well outsold the number of sales it bagged on the Xbox, I wouldn’t call 13.7 million anything else other than a great success.
Do anything, challenge everyone. I know it sounds like the first draft of EA’s iconic brand statement, but it’s very true for this game!
8. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
- Total Sales – 13,490,000
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 slides into the 8th spot in our list with close to 13.5 million sales.
My school used to be a ghost town when a new CoD game came out. I mean, I imagine it did; I, along with most of the students and teachers, weren’t there to witness it.
As far as war goes, this is the closet I want to get to actual combat. Sitting in the heart of the action and going up against my mates on Xbox Live… those were the days.
Modern Warfare 2 brought some cool features such as Special Ops Missions to the table as well as so many customisable multiplayer options.
And believe me when I say that the deatmatches were GoldeEye 007-esque. That’s massive praise!
A game from 2009 just shouldn’t look this good!
9. Halo 3 (2007)
- Total Sales – 12,130,000
Halo 3 might be 9th in the official figures, but it’s still a win for the Halo franchise as a whole, selling just under 4 million more copies than Halo 2.
What I love about this game is that while the main mechanics are the same, the continuation of the storyline as well as ‘tying up some loose ends’ from the first two titles makes it incredibly hard to put down.
And while the Halo 3 obviously appeals to players of the first two games, you don’t need to be a fan or to have played the first two to just jump in and enjoy it.
You can simply just plug in and blow aliens up while saving the universe without getting too bogged down if all you’re looking for is to blow off steam.
In this title, everything has gone wrong for the Master Chief and pals. The Flood are running amok, Cortana has done a runner, and a mysterious weapon must be found in order to get the upper hand.
If you like big guns and epic maps, then crack on! Make sure to check out our friends over at FPS Champion for Halo guides if you get a chance.
10. Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)
- Total Sales – 11,100,000
Liberty City was a fan favourite in terms of GTA world settings, so there’s no surprise that the iconic setting features as the main location for players to explore.
Liberty City couldn’t be any more like New York City if it tried, although this version has slightly more crime and lawlessness…. though only slightly
Work your way up the criminal gang ladder, which is kind of like a social ladder for delinquents, as you kill everyone on the way up.
If you compare it to GTA V, there’s not as much vehicle compatibility when it comes to exploring. Still, it’s not a massive deal breaker; there are plenty of explosions to run from and endless numbers of hours to just wander around causing havoc.
Steal cars, visit strip bars, join gangs, and pull off jobs; it’s Cyberpunk 2077 but on the Xbox 360.
Listen, these games aren’t a relaxing ride, but they look so good on the Xbox 360 all these years later.
