Wrestling & MMA Video Game Sales Data

With today's release of UFC Undisputed 3, it is an opportune time to discuss global sales of MMA and wrestling video games. Video games have become an integral source of revenue for both MMA and professional wrestling organizations, here are global sales numbers to compare for some recent releases (if released on multiple consoles, totals are added for one grand total, portables are not included):

UFC:
Undisputed 2010 - 2.44 million (PS3 & Xbox 360)
Undisputed 2009 - 3.61 million (PS3 & Xbox 360)

WWE:
WWE '12 - 1.91 million (PS3, Xbox 360 & Wii)
WWE All Stars - 0.66 million (PS3, Xbox 360 & Wii)
Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 - 2.54 million (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii & PS2)
Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 - 3.8 million (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii & PS2)
Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 - 3.76 million (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii & PS2)
Legends of Wrestlemania - 0.75 million (PS3 & Xbox 360)
Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 - 5.96 million (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii & PS2)
Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 - 3.04 million (Xbox 360 & PS2)

Other:
TNA Impact - 1.12 million (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii & PS2)
EA MMA - 0.49 million (PS3 & Xbox 360)
Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes del Ring - 0.08 million (PS3, Xbox 360 & Wii)
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns - 0.09 million (PS2)


Considering the business downturn of the past decade, the video game boom has grown enough to overcome the decline in popularity of the WWE product. The core yearly release (from Smackdown vs. Raw to WWE '12) consistently sells better than the "special" releases such as WWE All Stars or Legends of Wrestlemania. One possibility to the reasoning of this is the EA Sports tradition of releasing yearly updates to each of it's sports franchises. Popularity levels of the company's games have slightly dipped as this generation of consoles has aged, this can be seen as a correlation to the popularity of the product.

The most important data to note is the lack of success of a game unless it is an official release of WWE, UFC or TNA. Fire Pro Wrestling Returns was a cult hit, following up on a series that had an extremely loyal cult fanbase so the figure of around 90,000 units sold is a bit of a surprise. This year there will be a relaunch of the Fire Pro series on the Xbox 360, this relaunch looks to have changed the entire engine and game from previous versions, so it will be interesting to see if the fanbase sticks around.

The ideal situation for the Fire Pro series would be to create a downloadable title that has characters from TNA, ROH, Chikara, etc.... The lack of physical distribution would balance out the small cult fanbase that would purchase the product. Cooperating with indie wrestling federations would increase the awareness of the talent which is a bonus for both sides of the coin.

Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/