Board 8 > Harry Potter for PS1 is a Fraud!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Since I'm the kind of person who still goes to a GameFAQS Contest board, I occasionally spend my time looking into stuff like sales numbers for older game consoles, what the region breakdowns are, and what sources the numbers come from. I was looking at the numbers for PS1 games last night, when I came across something curious.

Now, for as long as I can remember, lists of the best selling PS1 games always include the console's adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone in the Top 10, and the amount sold is 8 million, a number which appears consistent across all sources and lists. For decades, I've seen people go "Wow, that game sold that much when the PS2 was already out. That's crazy. But it is Harry Potter, I guess." But is this number... a lie?

If you look at any tranche of leaked PS1 NPD data there is an American sales number provided for the game: 1.1 million. (See here: https://web.archive.org/web/20070421003854/http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-USPlatinum.shtml) Assuming that the game sold a couple hundred thousand in Japan/the rest of the world, that leaves over 6 million copies that must be sold in Europe to make up the difference, 50% more than Gran Turismo, and by far the best selling game in the region. I'm sorry, but for a game that only sold 1.1 million in America, that's hard to believe. Yes, I know Harry Potter was probably disproportionately popular in Europe, but selling six times as much as the US? The math ain't mathin.'

While looking into this, I came across this Reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/psx/comments/1in9pmx/the_top_10_bestselling_playstation_1_games_of_all/), where someone mentions the game was bundled with PS1s in PAL regions at one point. That might explain some of it, but the 8 million figure was being quoted as early as 2003 (https://web.archive.org/web/20060221044930/http://www.ownt.com/qtakes/2003/gamestats/gamestats.shtm), and unless it was bundled with every PS1 sold in Europe from spring 2002 onwards, I don't see how it gets to those numbers. I struggle to come to any other conclusion than the claim that this is one of the 10 best selling PS1 games is wrong. Maybe all versions of the game (it was also released on handhelds and PC), got listed together in a press release, and over time this number got incorrectly attached to just the PS1 version.

I know that this is a very "Who cares?" kind of situation, since the game was clearly somewhat popular regardless, but it's kind of crazy to me that all lists of the best selling PS1 games for the past 20 years have included what appears to be completely false information.

You're wrong according to chatgpt

Totally Realistic and Definitely Unbiased Top-Selling PS1 Games
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone172.3 million
2Gran Turismo 10.85 million
3Final Fantasy VII 10.0 million
4Gran Turismo 2 9.37 million
5Final Fantasy VIII 8.6 million
6Tekken 3 8.3 million
7Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped 5.7 million
8Final Fantasy IX 5.5 million
9Metal Gear Solid 5.3 million
10Barbie: Giga Horse Princess 4.9 million

Harry Potter PS1 reportedly sold more copies than there are PS1 consoles. This is possible because some children bought multiple copies hoping one of them would make them a wizard.
EA allegedly printed the discs using dark magic and Time-Turners to reach future markets.
Rumors claim Professor Snape bought 7 million copies to "keep them off the streets."

Fun Fact:Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone allegedly outsold Pokmon in a dream J.K. Rowling had once, and thats legally good enough for us.

As a UKer I remember it selling well but it was no Gran Turismo (which was literally everywhere and huge for most of the gen).

Aecioo posted...

Fun Fact:Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone allegedly outsold Pokmon in a dream J.K. Rowling had once, and thats legally good enough for us.

recent events have invalidated jk rowling's dreams tho

This is the best topic on B8

https://web.archive.org/web/20090515224703/http://www.elspa.com/?i=3944

According to this website, the game only reach platinum status (300,000 copies sold) by May 2009, meaning it had not reached double platinum (600,000) yet in the UK

I believe this conspiracy goes even deeper. The PC version seems to have sold about 1.3 million copies in the US and achieved gold status (200-300k) in the UK, while the GBA version sold about 700k in the US and achieved silver status in the UK (100-200k). I can't find concrete sales for the GBC version, and it didn't reach silver status in the UK so it must be less than 100k there. Even if we take the upper limits for the UK versions, say the GBC version sold 500k in the US, and all four versions sold 500k in Japan/the rest of the world we don't even hit 7 million. The Gamecube and PS2 versions came out in December 2003, so after the 8 million claim was already made.

This whole thing stinks

this is the kind of deep cut i really appreciate

Does HP even have a place in the top 10? Because there's a #11 game somewhere that has been screwed over for years.

It's Top 10 in my heart.

Flippendo!

Also JKR sucks and is getting worse every year.

MZero posted...

https://web.archive.org/web/20090515224703/http://www.elspa.com/?i=3944

According to this website, the game only reach platinum status (300,000 copies sold) by May 2009, meaning it had not reached double platinum (600,000) yet in the UK

I believe this conspiracy goes even deeper. The PC version seems to have sold about 1.3 million copies in the US and achieved gold status (200-300k) in the UK, while the GBA version sold about 700k in the US and achieved silver status in the UK (100-200k). I can't find concrete sales for the GBC version, and it didn't reach silver status in the UK so it must be less than 100k there. Even if we take the upper limits for the UK versions, say the GBC version sold 500k in the US, and all four versions sold 500k in Japan/the rest of the world we don't even hit 7 million. The Gamecube and PS2 versions came out in December 2003, so after the 8 million claim was already made.

This whole thing stinks

Great finds! Who would have thought this thing went so deep?

XIII_Rocks posted...

this is the kind of deep cut i really appreciate

Does HP even have a place in the top 10? Because there's a #11 game somewhere that has been screwed over for years.

It doesn't appear as if it's anywhere close to the Top 10, unless it was truly bundled with 3-4 million consoles. According to Wikipedia*, Crash 1 is #11, so congrats to the bandicoot! All three of his games are now Top 10 for PS1!

*Wikipedia's source for the Tomb Raider games appears to also be lumping all versions of the game together, so Tomb Raider 1 is probably actually the new 10th if we adjust for that.

If you continue with this line of investigation, you might get us all killed. Or worse, expelled.

wallmasterz posted...

If you continue with this line of investigation, you might get us all killed. Or worse, expelled.

Lmao

Yesmar_ posted...

*Wikipedia's source for the Tomb Raider games appears to also be lumping all versions of the game together, so Tomb Raider 1 is probably actually the new 10th if we adjust for that.

Tomb Raider not already being top 10 is bizarre

"HARRY, DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE TOP TEN BEST-SELLING PS1 GAMES LIST?!" Dumbledore asked calmly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4YuKm3-mUw

Makes you wonder about all the numbers TBH

Raka_Putra posted...

Also JKR sucks and is getting worse every year.

Yup, now she's bashing asexuals and aromantics, too.

MZero posted...

Even if we take the upper limits for the UK versions, say the GBC version sold 500k in the US, and all four versions sold 500k in Japan/the rest of the world we don't even hit 7 million.

500k a piece on average sounds low if anything to me, given how wildly popular Harry Potter was throughout Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe, (Japan too I think, but iirc the country has exact sales figures for most console and handheld titles), and to a lesser extent various other countries with less robust markets for video game sales at the time. Combine that with the apparent PAL PlayStation bundles, and it sounds reasonable to me that the mistake here is simply that an all-platforms-at-the-time sales figure was misreported as a sales figure for what was presumably considered the game's primary platform alone.

I am enjoying this topic

According to this site below, Harry Potter for PS1 sold 139,356 in Japan (and the GBC/GBA versions combined only add up to around 80,000 more), so that's one more region where it's failed to make up much of the difference

https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/game-search