Do sales equal quality?

[CM30]

Here's a thought and question to consider. Does how well a game sells directly correlate to the quality of that game?

Some people online like Sean Malstrom, some of VG Chartz and a few gaming sites think it does, others think that products that sell are simply what appeal to a larger audience and not what's best overall.

But yeah, do sales equal quality? Are the best selling games also the best games in general?

 

[Zexis]

Absolutely not. I don't think Call of Duty is a bad series, but I certainly don't think it's the best. Yet it continues to smash sales records.

Sales are indicative of popularity, as you said:

[...] others think that products that sell are simply what appeal to a larger audience and not what's best overall.

 

[TheTEChguy27]

I'm sure there has to be some sort of quality in what sells well, but take a game like Psychonauts for example. Absolutely brilliant game. Didn't sell well at all. Another game, the Wii remake of Klonoa. It's awesome. Yet it was a commercial failure. Quality and sales don't directly correlate, but I think they're at least partially related.

 

[Lubban747]

I don't believe that sales equal quality at all. Sales are usually affected by the name of the series even if the game turns out to be absolute crap, for example the Final Fantasy series FFXIII sales would state that it is as good as the other games in the series which it wasn't. And also the Shin Megami Tensei series is one the BEST RPG series around but none of the games have had those amazing sales figures.......seriously i would rate most of the games in that series 8.5/10 or higher

 

[Snapcha]

I think it al comes down to personal preference. There is no real good and no real bad game. (well, exceptions left aside). A game could be a commercial succes and still not be considered 'a good game' by many. But it has one or two elements in it's favor.

If you look at the call of duty series for example. Nobody seems to claim they trully love those games, but because they want to play with friends they all get it.

 

[Claraviolet]

To be honest sales doesn't really mean much. Because of excessive advertising, sometimes sales would be really high for some game, novel, anime.... But in reality it might be bad or something.

So, I don't think sales equal to quality

 

[froggyboy604]

I think some bad things can sell very well, but are not very high quality because people maybe pressured into buying the product because of peer pressure, and a lot of marketing/advertising for the product.

 

[Kita]

I don't think there is any connection between the success rate of the game and the quality of it.