Minecraft Made Nearly $100 Million On Xbox Live Alone

When breaking down some of the stats for the performance of the Xbox 360 throughout 2012, one thing that became the centerpiece of attention was that the one thing carrying the Xbox 360 through the revenue barriers and maintaining a modicum of success was Xbox Live. Well, one of the things that actually made Xbox Live such a success in 2012 was actually the indie-title-that-could, Minecraft.

Research and data marketing firm Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment (a.k.a, FADE) released some numbers for the Xbox Live platform, following the poor numbers of the Xbox 360's performance in 2012, FADE paints a different light on the same scenario, further highlighting why the Xbox Live platform carried the Xbox 360 across the finish line in 2012 to a light clap and sparse nods of approval: It was mostly due to Minecraft.

The Xbox Live division racked up an impressive $290 million USD in revenue throughout 2012 but $97.4 million of that was attributed to Minecraft, which moved an impressive 500,000 digital units in December alone.

In a distant second was Trials Evolution and TellTale's Walking Dead to round out third place. You can check out the top 10 Xbox Live Arcade titles and their financial performance throughout the previous year with the chart below.

Estimated Top Ten XBLA Titles in 2012, Ordered by Gross Revenues

1.) Minecraft (4J Studios) - 4,997,000 Units / $97,388,000

2.) Trials Evolution (RedLynx, LTD) - 1,002,000 Units / $14,298,000

3.) The Walking Dead (TellTale Games) - 2,615,000 Units / $10,277,000

4.) Counterstrike: GO (Valve) - 273,000 Units / $3,973,000

5.) Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) - 252,000 Units / $3,778,000

6.) Gotham City Impostors (Monolith Productions) - 258,000 / $3,698,000

7.) I Am Alive (Ubisoft) - 245,000 Units / $3,609,000

8.) Tony Hawk's PS HD (Robomodo) - 226,000 Units / $3,261,000

9.) Alan Wake's American Nightmare (Remedy Entertainment) - 206,000 Units / $2,903,000

10.) Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) - 203,000 / $2,799,000

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.