11 Best-selling Strategy Games Ever
How to check the popularity of a title? The best indicator is by the number of copies sold. This time we look at strategy games.
Table of Contents
- 11 Best-selling Strategy Games Ever
- 10. Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
- 9. Command & Conquer
- 8. Stellaris
- 7. Total War: Three Kingdoms
- 6. SimCity 3000
- 5. Cities: Skylines
- 4. Sid Meier's Civilization 5
- 3. Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings
- 2. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
- 1. StarCraft
9. Command & Conquer
- Developer: Westwood Studios
- Year: 1995
- Estimated number of copies sold: >3 million
Westwood studio, a developer also known as "The king of RTS," after releasing the revolutionary Dune 2, decided for their next game to be in a completely different setting. Command & Conquer was an attempt to portray "modern warfare," inspired by the first Gulf War. Nevertheless, the game introduced a fictional universe portraying a conflict between Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of NOD. The innovative mission scenarios were mixed with cheesy, albeit incredibly immersive, full-motion cut-scenes. The plot was more engaging that of many action games!
There were over 3 million copies sold, but the game spawned multiple continuations, which in 2009 had multiplied this figure 10 times – to 30 million. For many, Command & Conquer was the game that made RTS cool. As one magazine described C&C: "It took real time strategies out of the prehistoric days of hex boards and made them fun again." You can re-experience the same craze by playing the remaster, released in 2020, which fared much better than Warcraft 3: Reforged.
