Castle Crashers and From Dust are XBLA's top-grossing games of 2011

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FADE report announces record-setting year for Microsoft downloads

The good news keeps rolling in for Microsoft. Less than a week since COO Kevin Turner announced record earnings for the 2011 holiday season, the number crunchers at Forecasting %26 Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) have come out with a report indicating the Xbox Live Arcade broke a sales record itself thanks to the success of Eric Chahi's From Dust, The Behemoth's Castle Crashers, and Microsoft's own Full House Poker.

According to FADE's data, XBLA revenues grew by a record $144 million last year, representing an 18% uptick in overall growth. FADE attributed much of XBLA's success to its Days of Summer promotion, which included a majority of the year's top-grossing games. Although Full House Poker was ranked as the most popular title overall, both From Dust and Castle Crashers brought in the most money.

The complete top ten list, ranked by units sold, looks like this:

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  1. Full House Poker (Microsoft Game Studios): 375,000 Units / $3.6 Million ($9.66 ASP)
  2. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth): 335,000 Units / $4.6 Million ($13.69 ASP)
  3. Fruit Ninja Kinect (Halfbrick Studios): 324,000 Units / $3.2 Million
  4. From Dust (Ubisoft): 308,000 Units / $4.6 Million ($15.00 ASP)
  5. Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD): 286,000 Units / $4.0 Million D ($13.80 ASP)
  6. Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games): 278,000 Units / $2.7 Million ($9.71 ASP)
  7. Torchlight (Runic Games): 272,000 Units / $4.0 Million ($14.64 ASP)
  8. Toy Soldiers: Cold War (Signal Studios): 241,000 Units / $3.6 Million ($15.00 ASP)
  9. Bastion (Supergiant Games): 241,000 Units / $3.6 Million ($15.00 ASP)
  10. Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale (Bedlam Games): 210,000 Units / $2.8 Million ($13.38 ASP)

Over and above being a high ranking performer for XBLA, Castle Crashers was reported to have sold more than 2 million copies between XBLA and PSN combined. By FADE's estimation, this makes The Behemoth's beat 'em up the best-selling and highest grossing title in the history of downloadable games.

This list follows Sony's 2011 report, which pegged Tetris and Call of Duty: Black Ops as last year's PSN heavyweights. Let us know what you think of either company's year-end download results in the comments below.

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Matt Bradford

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.