Top 10 Best Selling Saturn Games in the U.S. (dollar sales)

[Folco]

Interesting - thanks. My question was really focused on the exclusivity part. It does seem that the best selling games were console exclusives until the PS3 and 360. The Saturn being the sole exception (or close to it, at least) highlights the lack of an exclusive killer title in North America from Sega or 3rd party.

Ah, I missed the exclusivity part.
PS3/XB360 was when happened a strong shift in the concept of multiplatform development.
In the distant past multi-platform games were developed as different SKUs usually by different teams or companies.
Instead today multiplatform development is intended as a project that targets multiple platforms.

I'd like to add that on PS2 third-party games gained even more prominence than on PS1.
Even multiplatform third-party games tended to sell far more on PS2 than on Xbox or GC because PS2 was perceived by consumers as the de facto TV console to own to play third-party games.
GTA SA, which became PS2 top selling game in US, was also available on Xbox (though PS2 had 8 months time exclusivity).
The landside victory of the PS2 version over the Xbox version was in part due to the time excludivity but also because the 3D GTA series grew in popularity on PS2 before landing on Xbox and PS2 had a massive userbase advantage.
Third-party games available on day one on PS2 and Xbox tended to sell more on PS2 anyway.

[Team Andromeda]

Madden 97 was utterly brilliant on the Saturn, In fact, I'll say it's better than the PS version,EA were really good on the Saturn in the early years, until the change of SOA management screwed it all up
Drunken Madden 97 in 8-player mode was an utter riot back in the day, The Saturn was in a league of its own for Multiplayer games against the PS. I think it was Quarterback Club 96/7 that had a 12-player mode, That was mad, more so when some of my mates playing to make it up to 12, didn't understand the rules of NFL, Fifa 96 was ace in multiplayer mode too, along with Saturn Bomberman



GOD I wish I could have those days back.

[Deathscythe]

The actual best selling Saturn game in the US was Virtua Fighter 2, if you include bundled sales:

https://segaretro.org/Press_release:...es_projections

[Cafeman]

Madden 97 was utterly brilliant on the Saturn.

Here, here! I agree. Earlier this year I devoted my entire Saturn memory allocation to playing an entire season of Madden 97, playing as the Steelers. I'm not good at it anymore, so my team lost a lot of games which was actually refreshing. It's the pinnacle of 2D football, like a supercharged Genesis port keeping all the fun yet adding slick superior visuals and sounds. I even enjoy the John Madden FMV clips which are frozen in that time period. I've read somebody claiming Madden 98 is even better but I can't see how.

[Team Andromeda]

Here, here! I agree. Earlier this year I devoted my entire Saturn memory allocation to playing an entire season of Madden 97, playing as the Steelers. I'm not good at it anymore, so my team lost a lot of games which was actually refreshing. It's the pinnacle of 2D football, like a supercharged Genesis port keeping all the fun yet adding slick superior visuals and sounds. I even enjoy the John Madden FMV clips which are frozen in that time period. I've read somebody claiming Madden 98 is even better but I can't see how.

I think people just forget and overlook just how good Madden 96 really was. It played every bit as good as the MD version (the Sega pad layout was so perfect for it) and just added a super next gen presentation, even the intro was utterly amazing and its music. There you had thosw lovely 3D fully accurate stadiums of each team, the FMV segments right down to the halftime show, amazing Q- sound on the ref calls and it was all utterly amazing and I go as far to say the Saturn port was better than the PS.

Such a awesome game and product. EA were really good on the Saturn in the 1st couple of years.