Best Selling Spectrum Game

[Fahnn]

Recently I've been trying to get a grip on which Spectrum game sold the most copies. I've been trawling through old magazine scans to look for any pertinent information, but what I've learned is that this sort of endeavour is like nailing jelly to a wall. On the one hand, there's the boastful claims of Imagine and Ocean (none of which I can take seriously) and on the other there's the secrecy of most of the rest of the industry. Nobody, even in the trade magazines seemed to reveal any definite figures unless it was some outlandish boast (Arcadia sold 400,000 by March 1983? Other Imagine games sold an average of 250,000? Including Schizoids, the game so bad that no-one I knew even bothered tape-to-taping it? Yeah, sure).

I can potentially give credence to some sales claims that I've seen, e.g. 400,000 for Manic Miner, 350,000 for Sabre Wulf, 300,000 for Jetpac. But some are just ridiculous, especially for the games that were released after 1987. I know that Robocop was top of the charts for over a year, but the best-selling Spectrum game ever (and I believe over 1,000,000 copies was claimed at one point)? I seriously doubt that there were enough active Spectrum users buying games by the time it came out. Although, maybe they all loved it so much that they bought it twice. The most eye-opening claim I've seen is from Richard Hewison, who reckoned that Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles sold 420,000 in its first month of release. Now, I can believe that figure if it was distributor shippings across all formats (which could take months to sell), but first month sales purely on the Spectrum? Nah.

Now, I can quite believe that later games sold more as there were less Spectrum users by that point, so it would be more difficult to obtain taped copies. But the market was so much smaller that there can't possibly have been that many copies sold, certainly not as many as claimed.

If anyone has any real information, I'd love to hear it as I'd really like to nail this down (not for any reason other than my own interest). But it's not going to be possible, is it? The actual figures just don't exist, or have been lost. It's a real shame.

[Ralf]

As you say the exact numbers are unknown.

You are also correct that with each year sales went down as Spectrum was becoming an obsolete machine.

We have heard some stories here about games with LOWEST sales, something made at home sold via add in a newspaper.
They were 50 or even 20 copies.

I've also seen numbers like 400 000 for popular games from Ultimate and Ocean.

But I wonder about early hits like Horace Goes Skiing or Scrabble. You see them on auctions all the time, probably had
big sales too, maybe the biggest.

[beanz]

Cassette 50 must be up there...who didn't want that digital watch.

[PeteProdge]

I think it's a toss-up between Ghostbusters and Robocop. As has been said, we'll never know the true sales numbers for sure.

Also, the Spectrum market was still surprisingly strong at the end of the eighties. Yes, it had declined, no question, but games sales for 16-bit platforms weren't really eclipsing the Speccy's games sales for quite a while.

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles was an absolutely huge brand in its heyday. That annoying brand was saturating all media at one point. (Not a fan, but I liked the arcade game, and the pizza-flavour crisps.)

Out Run was hugely hyped, I reckon that, while it's not the absolute best-selling title, it would have been in a top ten of all-time best-selling Speccy games.

[8BitAG]

But I wonder about early hits like Horace Goes Skiing or Scrabble. You see them on auctions all the time, probably had
big sales too, maybe the biggest.

The Spectrum Six pack would certainly have given some of those titles a boost.

[Fahnn]

I think it's a toss-up between Ghostbusters and Robocop. As has been said, we'll never know the true sales numbers for sure.

Going by what I can find on the internets, I reckon you're probably right. I was amazed at how well the Spectrum Ghostbusters seemed to sell (going by the sales charts at the time) because it really wasn't a very good game. The C64 version wasn't a very good game either, but it at least had the music going for it. All my C64-owning friends seemed to buy it, but only one of my Spectrum-owning friends had an original (which he regretted buying). I think I played it a couple of times, realised it was rubbish and didn't bother again.

[toot_toot]

If you're going to take into account full price and budget re-release sales, then I would say Ghostbusters would probably be the biggest selling game. I don't know what the Spectrum only sales figures were, but it was one of Mastertronic's biggest selling games and was their biggest selling re-release.

http://www.guter.org/mastertronic/maste ... _stats.htm

It sold over 400,000 thousand copies (Formula One Simulator was the only game to sell more) for just the budget re-release, although that does take into account all formats and it sold at least 300,000 copies at full price from this advert

https://ia800604.us.archive.org/zipview ... ters_4.jpg

It also had a 128k only enhanced re-release as well as on a number of compilations (I think I have it 5 times, including compilation releases!)

[mzx]

Football Manager (Prism re-release, corner of inlay) : "Combined sales of over 400.000 units". This is the pre-release state in 1987. Probably a few tens of thousands of Prism release also sold out. In the end, maybe 450.000? This is a "valid" number for all platforms (maybe 70-90% Spectrum).

[StooB]

In the end, maybe 450.000? This is a "valid" number for all platforms (maybe 70-90% Spectrum).

Football Manager came out on virtually every 8 bit system so Spectrum sales would have been nowhere near 70%. Mastertronic had some of their best sales for machines like the Commodore 16 simply because there was so little software released for it.

According to the Story of US Gold book, all of the titles on the They Sold A Million compilation had sold a million (across all platforms), and the compilation itself also sold a million.

Contradicting this is the History of Ocean Software book which claims RoboCop was the first million-seller (across all platforms).

[djnzx48]

In the end, maybe 450.000? This is a "valid" number for all platforms (maybe 70-90% Spectrum).

Football Manager came out on virtually every 8 bit system so Spectrum sales would have been nowhere near 70%. Mastertronic had some of their best sales for machines like the Commodore 16 simply because there was so little software released for it.

According to the Story of US Gold book, all of the titles on the They Sold A Million compilation had sold a million (across all platforms), and the compilation itself also sold a million.

Contradicting this is the History of Ocean Software book which claims RoboCop was the first million-seller (across all platforms).

There's this from Sinclair User 44 (November 1985), on page 9:

The unlikely title refers to the fact that, in their heyday, the combined sales of those four games were around a million - at some point they each occupied the coveted number one slot in the charts. "If we sell another million, we will be only too pleased," says Ocean's David Ward.

and on page 130:

Meanwhile Ward is also bringing out a compilation tape called They Sold a Million. Gremlin isn't aware of any game which has ever sold a million - the record for outrageous sales figures so far stands at Activision's 300,000 for Ghostbusters.
Unabashed, the Jack Nicklaus of Manchester explains that it's the four games together which sold a million. Well, maybe not quite a million. Certainly closer to a million than to half a million.
"The figure," says Ward, confidently, "is no more than 250,000 out."
Would you buy an Afghan Coat off this man...?

[PeteProdge]

I think it's a toss-up between Ghostbusters and Robocop. As has been said, we'll never know the true sales numbers for sure.

Going by what I can find on the internets, I reckon you're probably right. I was amazed at how well the Spectrum Ghostbusters seemed to sell (going by the sales charts at the time) because it really wasn't a very good game. The C64 version wasn't a very good game either, but it at least had the music going for it. All my C64-owning friends seemed to buy it, but only one of my Spectrum-owning friends had an original (which he regretted buying). I think I played it a couple of times, realised it was rubbish and didn't bother again.

It doesn't matter if it isn't a good game (and I certainly agree with you, Ghostbusters has the feel of a compiled BASIC game with no real idea - apparently the original version was meant to be a car management game and then Activision won the license and the developers just shoe-horned in the references)... It's the license that wins the sales. It's of something that's majorly hyped.

I remember reading an interview with the software house that was about to release Gazza 2 on the Spectrum. At one point they said something along the lines of "We could stick a blank tape in the box and it would still sell". Cruel, but so true. People will buy things with a recognised name and if it's part of a fashion, it's going to sell loads.

Hence why US Gold and Ocean made more money than Hewson and Quicksilva.

[Alessandro]

Hey! Actually I like Ghost Busters and Gazza II

The first might not be a masterpiece, but its weirdness and novelty value make up for that. Capturing ghosts is no piece of cake, precision in laser beam positioning and timing in activating the trap are required, if you don't want your men to be slimed. And the tune on the 128K version is great.

The second is a good bird's eye soccer title for the Spectrum, much better than the over-hyped Microprose Soccer.

That said, the absence of certain sources of information about the selling figures - it's understandable that those claimed by the publishers were exaggerated and must be taken with a double grain of salt - means the question about the best selling Spectrum game will in all likelihood never meet a precise answer.

[Fahnn]

Hey! Actually I like Ghost Busters and Gazza II

Haha, each to their own, I guess. But you know, it's good that we all like different things.

However, I think we can all agree that some games were just terrible and had no redeeming features (yeah, I'm looking at you, Jack & The Beanstalk).

And as to the sales thing, I think in the absence of any proper industry figures from the time, we're always going to be in the dark. I've been trying to go through all the old magazine scans with charts, in an attempt to get some sort of grip on it, but there's simply no consistency. The Sinclair User charts (1983-84) aren't even consistent with one another from month to month and literally make no sense (Manic Miner, which I think everyone knows was one of the biggest sellers, makes one single appearance in their charts, at no. 6 in November 1983 and no appearances at all in 1984, even though they had it at no. 3 in their 1984 end-of-year chart); C & VG ran charts from mid 1983 to the spring of 1984, which initially looked pretty accurate from what I can remember, but then they seemed to forget all about them. They started up again with a Gallup-compiled version later on, but it's seemingly random whether these were featured or not (multiple months were missed).

It's frustrating, because I like to know stuff, but it's like trying to nail jelly to a wall. Everything that you think you've found out is contradicted by something else.

[Rainbirdrich]

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles sold 420,000 copies in November 1990 on the Spectrum. That's what the Mirrorsoft MD Peter Bilotta told us and that's what is engraved on the personalised pewter hip flask he subsequently gave to every Mirrorsoft employee to mark the achievement. I still have mine. This was just the Spectrum version. NOT all formats.

[DouglasReynholm]

I was working for an indie computer shop in the late 80's and early 90's and I can certainly (anecdotally, at least) vouch for Robocop and the Turtles being very popular on the Speccy - particularly the Hit Squad version of Robocop. Having said that, we sold a LOT of Codemasters games during that period so wouldn't be surprised to find it was really a Dizzy or Simulator title, at least 'best sellers' as far as our shop went. I seem to remember we even had a Gallup sales terminal in the shop, but I don't recall us ever seeing the figures from it, maybe the bosses did.

[PeteProdge]

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles sold 420,000 copies in November 1990 on the Spectrum. That's what the Mirrorsoft MD Peter Bilotta told us and that's what is engraved on the personalised pewter hip flask he subsequently gave to every Mirrorsoft employee to mark the achievement. I still have mine. This was just the Spectrum version. NOT all formats.

That'd be the much weaker of the two Turtles-licensed games for the Speccy then...

...which I think was based on a NES effort. Really terrible.

Obviously, the coin-op conversion (1991) is better...

Loved that in the arcade.

Of course, the Turtles were absolutely utterly huge at the time, wall-to-wall saturation of them in every media imaginable. If it had them on the box, it would have sold loads.

I knew not to get the 1990 game because a demo of it was on a Sinclair User tape and I was stunned at how bad it was, but hey, by that time, I guess a lot of Speccies were handed down to younger brothers/sisters, an age group very much in adoration of the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, so that'd be a big factor in the sales. 420,000 alone for the Spectrum in late 1990 is very very impressive, if it's true.

I suppose The Simpsons: Bart Vs The Space Mutants must have done pretty well, as that was very prolific at the time too, in spite of the only ZX Spectrum game also being a non-arcade thing that's rather disappointing.

[catmeows]

...which I think was based on a NES effort. Really terrible.

It was really great.

[PeteProdge]

...which I think was based on a NES effort. Really terrible.

It was really great.

I'd have been disappointed with it at a budget price. At best, it'd be interesting as a magazine covertape inclusion.

[catmeows]

It was really great.

I'd have been disappointed with it at a budget price. At best, it'd be interesting as a magazine covertape inclusion.

It was fun and very accessible. It was like another episode of TMHT. Of course, Turtles won as always. From technical point of view, it is good 48K game with colorful graphics and good beeper fx. It is little dull but is the TMTH arcade version any smarter ?

[5MinuteRetro]

Dunno if Anthony Guter's site has ever been mentioned around these parts but this thread reminded me of this sales chart hosted on his site. He ran the firm's sales and royalty accounting system for a few years in the second half of the 1980s, so I'd say this is a pretty authoritative all-formats breakdown: Mastertronic Best Sellers and Releases

It's noteworthy that the budget re-release of Ghostbusters apparently sold 412,922 units, so I don't think a million over its whole lifetime is beyond the realms.

[WIWC]

It was really great.

I'd have been disappointed with it at a budget price. At best, it'd be interesting as a magazine covertape inclusion.

Bought it full price and I was quite satisfied.

Better than the coin op conversion, with its trite and repetitive smash-everybody gameplay.

[Swainy]

I also worked in a games store between 1988 & 1990 and I think that most people would be surprised at just how popular the Spectrum was at that time.

[RWAC]

Surely Jet Set Willy, Skool Daze And the Hobbit all sold well?

[AndyC]

I'd have been disappointed with it at a budget price. At best, it'd be interesting as a magazine covertape inclusion.

Bought it full price and I was quite satisfied.

Better than the coin op conversion, with its trite and repetitive smash-everybody gameplay.

The coin op game worked better in the arcades where you could play with a bunch of mates. As a solo player game it's pretty tedious though. I actually quite liked the first game although it was a bit on the easy side and didn't play as well as the NES version due to more limo combat.

[fenderjaguar]

I know that Robocop was top of the charts for over a year, but the best-selling Spectrum game ever (and I believe over 1,000,000 copies was claimed at one point)? I seriously doubt that there were enough active Spectrum users buying games by the time it came out.

You're underestimating, probably because you're older than me. In the late 80's/early 90's, there was a new generation of kids that got spectrum +2/+3, they were probably also far more numerous than the generation that played on the rubber keys spectrum in the early/mid 80's.

I was born in '81, and every kid at primary school had a home computer of some sort in the late 80's, usually either C64 or ZX spectrum, sometimes amiga 500/atari ST if they were lucky