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Top brands of 2008 owned by Nintendo, EA, Activision, and not Sony

JC Fletcher
Updated ·2 min read

Wedbush Morgan Securities' 2009 industry report includes a list of the top thirty brands of 2008. The report notes that of the companies whose brands appear on the list, Nintendo, EA, and Activision were the only three with more than one brand to generate over $100 million at retail in the US last year.

And boy, did they. The top brand of the year, Guitar Hero -- perhaps you've heard of it -- was responsible for $992 million in US sales in 2008. The next two brands, Mario Bros. and Rock Band, generated $761 million and $662 million, respectively.

One company is notably absent from the top brands list: "Most strikingly," the report reads, "Sony had no top 30 brands for the third year in a row." Microsoft had two brands on the list (Gears of War and Fable) and Nintendo had four (Mario Bros., Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Pokémon). See the list of brands after the break.


  1. Guitar Hero (Activision Blizzard) $ 992 million

  2. Mario Brothers (Nintendo) $ 761 million

  3. Rock Band (Electronic Arts) $ 662 million

  4. Call Of Duty (Activision Blizzard) $ 446 million

  5. Wii Fit (Nintendo) $ 407 million

  6. Grand Theft Auto (Take-Two Interactive) $ 361 million

  7. Madden Football (Electronic Arts) $ 312 million

  8. Wii Play (Nintendo) $ 261 million

  9. LEGO (LucasArts) $ 224 million

  10. Star Wars (LucasArts) $ 180 million

  11. Sonic (Sega) $ 163 million

  12. Gears Of War (Microsoft) $ 146 million

  13. The Sims (Electronic Arts) $ 143 million

  14. Tom Clancy (Ubisoft) $ 130 million

  15. Pokemon (Nintendo) $ 119 million

  16. Need For Speed (Electronic Arts) $ 106 million

  17. Warcraft (Activision Blizzard) $ 104 million

  18. WWE (THQ) $ 103 million

  19. Fallout (Bethesda Softworks) $ 100 million

  20. NCAA Football (Electronic Arts) $ 94 million

  21. Tiger Woods (Electronic Arts) $ 89 million

  22. FIFA (Electronic Arts) $ 79 million

  23. Imagine (Ubisoft) $ 78 million

  24. Final Fantasy (Square Enix) $ 78 million

  25. Dance Dance Revolution (Konami) $ 78 million

  26. Metal Gear Solid (Konami) $ 77 million

  27. Fable (Microsoft) $ 77 million

  28. NBA Live (Electronic Arts) $ 71 million

  29. Mortal Kombat (Midway Games) $ 70 million

  30. Petz (Ubisoft) $ 70 million

Source: The NPD Group/Retail Track, Wedbush Morgan Securities estimates.