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Library/Game/Guitar Hero
Grade B20 sourcesHIS-01600

Guitar Hero

Game · 2005 · Niche

39Editable slideCertificate

A plastic guitar helped Guitar Hero sell almost 1.5 million copies of its first game.

Guitar Hero
Wikipedia (non-free, fair use)
Public-domain photo of the original Gibson SG controller, rotated horizontally.
derivative work: Masem ( talk ) Guitar-hero-controller.jpg : Original uploader was Y2kcrazyjoker4 at en.wikipedia / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons
Book Excerpt: Inside Game Design: Harmonix Music Systems
Rob Kay / Game Developer

Spread Score

How it works
ReachNo data yetContagionNo data yetBreadth20VelocityNo data yetLongevity6439

Numbers

Milestone date
By end of Feb 2006
Nov 3 ’05 to By end of Feb 2006
Platforms
3
Started on Retail
Origin
Seeded
Gaming

Mechanics

  • Underdog
  • Maker origin
  • Sell-out loopPrimary
  • Platform jump
  • Controversy

How it spread

Trace the origin

Players reported early Best Buy purchases before the nationwide launch. Holiday parties brought in nongamers. RedOctane announced an MTV partnership, and a later contest invited player videos. The first game approached 1.5 million sales.

Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.

Weekly UK retail-panel unit sales, PS22006-04-08: 5,9612006-04-15: 5,3842006-04-22: 3,4732006-04-29: 3,0382006-05-06: 2,2732006-05-13: 1,8192006-05-20: 1,8242006-05-27: 1,8012006-06-03: 1,6852006-06-10: 1,2302006-06-17: 1,3792006-06-24: 1,2782006-07-01: 1,0982006-07-08: 9852006-07-15: 1,0442006-07-22: 9952006-07-29: 1,3242006-08-05: 1,2992006-08-12: 1,1032006-08-19: 1,0912006-08-26: 1,2952006-09-02: 1,2632006-09-09: 9282006-09-16: 8612006-09-23: 6592006-09-30: 7282006-10-07: 8452006-10-14: 1,1472006-10-21: 1,0582006-10-28: 1,4172006-11-04: 1,3742006-11-11: 1,4532006-11-18: 2,2212006-11-25: 1,9672006-12-02: 2,1942006-12-30: 2,787Jul ’05OctDecApr ’06JunOctMar ’07AugDecDec ’08Apr ’10Apr ’11MilestoneRetailOpen webPress
RetailOpen webPress

13 more events on this chart

Join free to see them

Weekly UK retail-panel unit sales, PS2: 36 dated figures from ELSPA / Chart-Track, hosted by Ukie, each checked against the source. Measured at the time, not estimated.

Timeline (16)

  1. September 2005

    Charles and Kai Huang precursor · Sep 2005

    The Huang brothers tried to raise launch funding from venture capitalists, who declined.[1][2]

    Open the first post ↗

  2. November 2005

    Gary_Whitta and forgeforsaken seed · Nov 3 ’05

    Forum users reported buying finished copies at Best Buy before the announced nationwide launch.[3]

  3. RedOctane commercial · Nov 8 ’05

    RedOctane released the PS2 game nationwide with a guitar controller for $69.99.[4][5]

  1. owner response · Nov 22 ’05

  2. platform jump · By end of 2005

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Why it worked

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Origin
Seeded
Sector
Gaming
Region
US
Reported figure
—
Evidence
Grade B

Spread the same way

Game · Open web · 202070

Phasmophobia

Kinetic Games / Daniel Knight

A solo developer's ghost-hunting game reached 30 million sales, Kinetic Games reported.

30M sold

1 / 8

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New cases, every week

How the next thing spread, the week it does.