2011 was a great year for Microsoft’s Xbox. The platform saw the release of massive new titles such as Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which broke Xbox LIVE records; the Xbox 360 continued to outsell its console rivals; and a major dashboard update, inspired by Microsoft’s Metro user experience, was successfully rolled out, bringing new apps and content to the platform.

Later in 2012, we’ll see Xbox LIVE deployed as an integrated component of Windows 8, while there are indications that we may even see Xbox gaming on rival platforms, such as iOS and Android. But last year, the Xbox LIVE platform still thrived on the 360 console, on Windows Phones, and through Games for Windows LIVE titles on PCs, and Microsoft has now released an overview of the most popular titles across its gaming platforms throughout 2011.

Although Microsoft hasn’t revealed the numbers behind these league tables, the company’s Major Nelson (aka Larry Hryb, Director of Programming for Xbox LIVE) explains that they have been assembled based on the numbers of unique users around the world connecting to the Xbox LIVE service to play the games or, where appropriate, on the number of full versions of a game purchased, across the full 2011 calendar year.

A couple of highlights: first up, it's worth noting the dominance of the Call Of Duty series on the 360, with five of the top twenty games coming from that franchise. Black Ops, which was released in late 2010 proved to be the top game of the year on the console, but it's perhaps even more impressive that Modern Warfare 3, which was released just two months ago, hit the number 2 spot in such a short space of time. Beyond the CoD series, it's similarly impressive that Skyrim, which was also released just a few weeks ago, found its way to number 6 on the list.

It should probably come as no surprise that Angry Birds topped the Windows Phone list, given the game's incredible popularity and addictive playability; perhaps this will encourage Rovio to finally deliver an update or a new version of the game to the platform, which hasn't seen any of the spin-off versions like 'Seasons' and 'Rio' that have appeared on other platforms.

Anyway, have a browse through the top-20s below, and let us know your thoughts - were you surprised to see any of these titles in the lists? Did you expect to see any games here that are missing? And which games do you think might be most popular this year?

1. Call Of Duty: Black Ops

2. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

3. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

4. Halo: Reach

5. Battlefield 3

6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

7. Gears Of War 3

8. FIFA 12

9. FIFA Soccer 11

10. Madden NFL 12

11. GTA IV

12. NBA 2K11

13. Battlefield: Bad Company 2

14. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

15. Battlefield 3 Beta

16. Halo 3

17. Gears Of War 2

18. Forza Motorsport 4

19. Red Dead Redemption

20. Call Of Duty: World At War





1. Angry Birds

2. Fruit Ninja

3. Plants vs Zombies

4. Need For Speed Undercover

5. Full House Poker

6. MONOPOLY

7. Doodle Jump

8. Bejeweled LIVE

9. Rise Of Glory

10. geoDefense

11. ilomilo

12. Assassin's Creed - Altaïr's Chronicles HD

13. Sonic 4: Episode I

14. Tetris

15. Fable: Coin Golf

16. Hydro Thunder GO

17. The Harvest

18. Uno

19. Tentacles

20. The Sims 3





1. Pinball FX2

2. Full House Poker

3. Castle Crashers

4. Fruit Ninja Kinect

5. From Dust

6. Trials HD

7. Magic: The Gathering - Duels Of The Planeswalkers 2012

8. Dead Rising 2: Case West

9. Torchlight

10. Toy Soldiers: Cold War

11. Plants vs Zombies

12. Portal: Still Alive

13. Bastion

14. Limbo

15. Game Room

16. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero

17. Peggle

18. Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale

19. Battlefield 1943

20. Beyond Good & Evil HD





1. FortressCraft Chapter 1

2. Total Miner: Forge

3. The Impossible Game

4. Avatar Paintball

5. Toy Stunt Bike

6. CastleMiner Z

7. I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1

8. Avatar Legends

9. CastleMiner

10. Miner Dig Deep

11. Avatar Laser Wars

12. Bird Assassin

13. Voice Changer 360

14. Nuclear Wasteland

15. Avatar Karting

16. Zombie Estate

17. Avatar Drop

18. Baby Maker Extreme 2

19. College Lacrosse 2011

20. The $1 Zombie Game



1. Age Of Empires Online

2. GTA IV

3. Batman: Arkham City

4. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition

5. F1 2011

6. DiRT 3

7. F1 2010

8. Fable III

9. Street Fighter IV

10. Resident Evil 5

11. Age Of Empires Online Beta

12. Fallout 3

13. Colin McRae: Dirt 2

14. Batman: Arkham Asylum

15. Bioshock 2

16. Bulletstorm

17. Section 8: Prejudice

18. Red Faction Guerilla

19. Dead Rising 2

20. Operation Flashpoint: Red River