This makes me feel cold inside.

The games PR industry, like any other, just loves numbers. Nearly every day I receive some abused statistics, usually along the lines of "our game sold more than any other title between three and four in the morning last Thursday!" or "our game sold this many copies!" with no mention of time frame or comparable milestones.

More reliable are reports from the various territory sales-tracking services, and this one from the US NPD is enough to make me swallow reflexively. The Nintendo Wii is the happy owner of three of the top fives selling games this decade.

We're almost nine years into the naughties, and the Wii has only been around for just under three of them, but has still managed to claim first, third, and fifth place in sales of that period.

Top of the charts is, of course, Wii Play, helped along by being bundled with the console of choice amongst non-core gamers, and managing to shift over 11 million units. Following along behind is "cheaper than a gym subscription" Wii Fit (7.9 million units), with Mario Kart Wii (6.7 million) the final member of the hot trio.

Second and fourth place both go to Grand Theft Auto titles, with San Andreas placing as the best selling non-motion controlled game in ten years (8.25 million units), with previous entry Vice City (6.9 million units) grimly bringing up the rear.

When did core games become the alternative? It's all becoming clear. Microsoft and Sony, we promise to buy more games without arm-waggling! Please don't stop making them!

Via GamesIndustry.biz.