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Black Ops, Call of Duty top Google gaming searches in 2011

Search engine giant lists Activision Blizzard shooter brands as most popular this year; Halo: Reach, Super Mario, Mortal Kombat round out top five.

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Given the game's record-setting opening sales and $1 billion lifetime total, it seems fairly clear that Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be the best-selling game of 2011. However, Modern Warfare 3 has lost this year's popularity contest, as measured by Google searches. The good news for Activision is that Modern Warfare 3 lost out to its predecessor, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

This just in: Black Ops is popular.
This just in: Black Ops is popular.

Today, Google released its yearly analytics report for most searched-for terms of the year, revealing Black Ops as the leading term in the gaming spectrum. Perhaps not so surprisingly given the popularity of Activision's shooter, the phrase "Call of Duty" slotted in just behind Black Ops.

Microsoft's Halo: Reach was the third most searched-for gaming term of 2011, with Super Mario and Mortal Kombat rounding out the top five.

Google released a separate list for online gaming alone. Activision Blizzard topped this list as well, with "Wow" (or World of Warcraft) easily outpacing all other search terms. "Addicting Games" fell in at second, with "free online games" coming in closely behind.

A full list of Google's top gaming search terms can be found below.

Top 10 Google Game Searches:
1. Black Ops
2. Call of Duty
3. Halo Reach
4. Super Mario
5. Mortal Kombat
6. Skyrim
7. Battlefield 3
8. Dragon Age 2
9. Diablo 3
10. Mass Effect 3

Top 10 Google Online Game Searches:
1. Wow
2. Addicting games
3. Free online games
4. Miniclip
5. Webkinz
6. Tower defense
7. Kids games
8. Armor games
9. Tetris
10. Juegos

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