Top 10 most wanted games according to Google

FIFA 12? Farmville? Starcraft II? Gears Of War 3? Batman: Arkham City?

Nope, not one of these big-name games is among the titles most searched for on Google through 2011. The actual top 10, which is probably very different to what you’d expect, is as follows…

10 – Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Search traffic for Modern Warfare 3 was high from the moment it was announced, but in the weeks leading up to release it climbed even higher, spiking massively on launch day as players frantically sought out information that might give them the edge on MW3’s phenomenally popular multiplayer modes.

9 – Pac-Man

Browser versions of arcade classics are increasingly popular with gamers looking for a quick, free gaming fix on their PC and one of the most popular is Pac-Man. This is partly thanks to the awesome Pac-Man Google logo version posted on the site’s front page in May 2010, marking the game’s 30th anniversary.

8 – Battlefield 3

It may not have outsold its rival, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but Battlefield 3 did manage to out-Google it. This seems to be mostly because Battlefield 3 spiked twice – first during the beta at the end of September, then again on the full game’s release a month later.

7 – Tetris

Some would argue that Tetris is categorically the best game ever, and there’s certainly a case for it. No other game condenses the fundamental principles of game design down to such a simple and effective formula and Tetris’ enduring popularity is testament to this. The popularity of numerous free online versions continues unabated.

6 – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Since its release in November, Skyrim has been by far the most searched for game in the world, beating any other game on this list for the last month. This isn’t just down to the popularity of the game, but to its nature. There’s just so much of it to find out about and players’ appetites for Skyrim knowledge show know signs of being satisfied any time soon.

5 – The Sims 3

The Sims franchise is a law unto itself. It just doesn’t follow the same patterns and trends other games are bound by. So two years after its release, The Sims 3 is still massively popular and EA just keeps stoking the fires with regular spin-offs and expansions.

4 – Call Of Duty: Black Ops

It might have slowly declined as the year went on, but Black Ops’ search traffic was still massive throughout 2011 as a whole. Just as with Modern Warfare 3, the traffic is largely down to people searching for information on multiplayer, plus there were noticeable spikes each time a DLC pack was released.

3 – Angry Birds

As if it wasn’t terrifying enough that Angry Birds has been downloaded over 500 million times in just two years, its search traffic is still growing. There are no clear patterns or obvious spikes, it’s simply that the general populace is getting increasingly addicted to launching wingless birds at legless pigs and just cannot get enough.

2 – Minecraft

Minecraft is unstoppable. If this list were dedicated to just the second half of 2011, it would be at #1, and by quite a long way too. Not only is it hugely popular, with 16 million registered users at present, it’s intriguing and mysterious and epitomises the idea of gaming as a widely shared experience, so people are constantly looking for what other players are doing and what’s coming next for the constantly evolving gaming phenomenon.

1 – World Of Warcraft

If Google traffic is anything to go by then World Of Warcraft’s popularity has been in steady decline for about two years now, which makes it even more mind-boggling that it’s still the most searched for game of 2011. It’ll be interesting to see if it remains the top dog over 2012. Right now that looks unlikely, but only a fool would underestimate Blizzard…