Guitar Hero rocks out to the tune of $1 billion

By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UKPosted Jan 22, 2008 8:48 am PT

The rock star-wannabe franchise has blasted through industry records, and sold quite a lot of games.

The first Guitar Hero game was released on the PlayStation 2 in the US in November 2005, and since then a slew of sequels have followed, including Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, and most recently, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

According to figures released today by Activision, the Guitar Hero series of games have been rocking across America--to the tune of $1 billion in the 26 months since it was first released.

Quoting NPD figures, the company states that the franchise has sold over 14 million units in total in North America alone, and that since the launch of Guitar Hero III, some 5 million songs have been downloaded.

Additionally, Guitar Hero III was the number one title in the region during 2007, both in terms of units and in dollars--according to the data, which means the game has sold the most copies of any title in one single year.

124 Comments

  • cheese4927

    Posted Feb 4, 2008 5:52 pm PT

    Guitar Hero III is an amazing game, and I can't wait for Guitar Hero IV!!!

  • UnreaLuigi

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 4:48 am PT

    what a great milestone for an awesome franchise.

  • Wardenb

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 2:10 am PT

    Iv just realised im missing out, buying a copy on friday !

  • marijuana_man2

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 6:57 pm PT

    Can't wait to see the new guitar model for GH4...

  • bodjoe921

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 3:50 pm PT

    AWESOME!~

  • Dawg9000

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 1:45 pm PT

    Where did Halo come from? Damn Halo fanboys. Noone cares if Halo made more.

  • Sonicplys

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 11:45 am PT

    Guitar Hero owns Rock Band any day of the week.
    DragonForce > anything on RB

  • MilkyJoe1

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 10:26 am PT

    Rock Band FTW!!!!!!!!!!

  • Atarii

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 8:45 am PT

    At least it's not an EA game.... yet....

  • jmartinez1983

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 8:32 am PT

    By the time GHIV and Rock Band 2 or whatever are released I see Rock Band taking over. They have a better model and better music. Plus they have the real brains behind the games in Harmonix. Plus, the huge party aspect of Rock Band is what really wins out. Being able to invite over people who never play video games and having hours long jam sessions are just too much fun.

  • Sil3n7Knight

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 8:31 am PT

    Guitar Hero is obsolete make way for Rock Rand!

  • Anabub

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 8:07 am PT

    Who said rhythm games would come to nothing LOL

  • element2121

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 7:47 am PT

    everybody's talking about halo and how much money that series has brought in, but here's the 2 things you need to think about:

    -GH originally costed anywhere from $70-$100; whereas, Halo was $50-$60

    -GH is sold for the Wii, 360, Xbox, PS2, PS3, PC; however, Halo was only released for the 360, Xbox, and PC

    I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that if Halo costed as much and was released on as many systems, it would bring in far more money than the GH series.

  • RgvXavi

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 6:28 am PT

    my only quarrell with GH III is that they don't release songs as often as RB. Not only that but most often GH III DLC usually come in bunches of 3 whereas RB you can get DL songs in either single(s) or a pack of 3. I can't say much about RB since I don't own it; however, i do go to my friends house who happens to own it and it's ok. my personal preference goes to GH III just because when I play alone it feels right, whereas when im at my buddies and playing RB alone it just feels.. off.

  • rockutd

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 6:25 am PT

    Wow thats pretty insane.I guess not even the Halo series could reach those heights...

  • AllSystemsRocks

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 6:12 am PT

    bigboyblack it's a joke right ? Have you played drum on RB ?

  • pash007

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 6:09 am PT

    I notice that the $1 billion dollars is the amount that "the franchise" has made. That's Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2 and Guitar Hero 3 added together. Does anybody know how much "The Halo Franchise" has taken? - That's Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 added together.
    I noticed that one person commented that the $1 billion dollars was more than Halo 3 had taken. That's only to be expected bearing in mind you're comparing 3 games at £70 each against 1 game at £40.

  • Phazevariance

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 6:01 am PT

    They shoudl join up again and make the ultimate "Guitar Band" game with the difficulty of GH and the song list in RB, all done in VR with the magic of disney... yadda yadda ... this style of gamepla can only go so far, and though i love them both, how much more improvements can they add? Just different song lists?

  • badboyblack posted Jan 23, 2008 4:25 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    badboyblack

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 4:25 am PT (hide)

    Guitar Hero is far better than Rock Band!!!!!

  • miiiguel

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 4:04 am PT

    Yeah David, I so love this hobby, I just wished our community wouldn't be so "war hungry" in the most ridiculous ways.

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