Top brands of 2008 owned by Nintendo, EA, Activision, and not Sony
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.
Guitar Hero (Activision Blizzard) $ 992 million
Mario Brothers (Nintendo) $ 761 million
Rock Band (Electronic Arts) $ 662 million
Call Of Duty (Activision Blizzard) $ 446 million
Wii Fit (Nintendo) $ 407 million
Grand Theft Auto (Take-Two Interactive) $ 361 million
Madden Football (Electronic Arts) $ 312 million
Wii Play (Nintendo) $ 261 million
LEGO (LucasArts) $ 224 million
Star Wars (LucasArts) $ 180 million
Sonic (Sega) $ 163 million
Gears Of War (Microsoft) $ 146 million
The Sims (Electronic Arts) $ 143 million
Tom Clancy (Ubisoft) $ 130 million
Pokemon (Nintendo) $ 119 million
Need For Speed (Electronic Arts) $ 106 million
Warcraft (Activision Blizzard) $ 104 million
WWE (THQ) $ 103 million
Fallout (Bethesda Softworks) $ 100 million
NCAA Football (Electronic Arts) $ 94 million
Tiger Woods (Electronic Arts) $ 89 million
FIFA (Electronic Arts) $ 79 million
Imagine (Ubisoft) $ 78 million
Final Fantasy (Square Enix) $ 78 million
Dance Dance Revolution (Konami) $ 78 million
Metal Gear Solid (Konami) $ 77 million
Fable (Microsoft) $ 77 million
NBA Live (Electronic Arts) $ 71 million
Mortal Kombat (Midway Games) $ 70 million
Petz (Ubisoft) $ 70 million
Source: The NPD Group/Retail Track, Wedbush Morgan Securities estimates.