EA tops Eurogamer traffic for 2009

Electronic Arts has garnered the most amount of traffic to its titles on consumer site Eurogamer.net in 2009, beating Sony and Activision Blizzard into second and third places respectively, according to the latest edition of GamesRetail.biz.

The publisher's portfolio approach allowed it to gain visibility for its titles throughout the year, with key releases around The Sims 3, EA Sports Active, FIFA 10, Dragon Age: Origins and Need for Speed: Shift, among others.

Meanwhile Sony's biggest drivers included Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, while behemoth shooter Modern Warfare 2 - although top of the titles ranking - was the only top ten entry for Activision in comparison.

Nintendo placed fourth, slightly ahead of Microsoft, while SEGA, Eidos/Square Enix Europe, Ubisoft, Capcom and Codemasters completed the list.

To give it some scale, EA bagged approximately three times the traffic of tenth-placed Codemasters over the course of 2009.

On the product chart, while the aforementioned Modern Warfare 2 unsurprisingly dominated the list, FIFA 10 and Dragon Age: Origins placed second and third, while Resident Evil 5 proved its popularity with the core audiences in fourth.

The Sony duo of Killzone and Uncharted were fifth and sixth, followed by Assassin's Creed II - one of the last key releases of the year, which put it at some disadvantage in comparison to earlier launches.

The controversy surrounding Darkfall Online - the subject of a low score earlier in the year, which resulted in a backlash from the developer and subsequent re-review (which was not dissimilar to the first) - propelled it to eighth in the list, ahead of Batman: Arkham Asylum and NCsoft's latest MMO, Aion.

GamesRetail.biz is a weekly publication from the creators of Eurogamer.net and GamesIndustry.biz, aimed at the retail and publishing sectors of the videogames business in the UK.

The full publisher rankings are as follows:

• 1. Electronic Arts
• 2. Sony
• 3. Activision Blizzard
• 4. Nintendo
• 5. Microsoft
• 6. SEGA
• 7. Eidos/Square Enix
• 8. Ubisoft
• 9. Capcom
• 10. Codemasters

The full product rankings are as follows:

• 1. Modern Warfare 2
• 2. FIFA 10
• 3. Dragon Age: Origins
• 4. Resident Evil 5
• 5. Killzone 2
• 6. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• 7. Assassin's Creed II
• 8. Darkfall Online
• 9. Batman: Arkham Asylum
• 10. Aion