Microsoft has released a press conference including some statistics regarding Xbox Live Arcade’s performance over the year, and if they seem pretty happy about it, they have pretty good reason to be. 

First off, Microsoft announced that over 100 million Achievements were earned by Xbox 360 gamers this year, for a total worldwide Gamerscore of 1.25 billion.  In addition, 110 million trial versions of XBLA games were downloaded from what MS calls “the top destination for premium downloadable games.”  Much of the year’s success can be attributed to August sales.  The “Summer of Arcade” saw a 58% increase in unique members downloading titles, marking August the service’s most profitable month by a 67% margin.  Not happy with mere financial bragging, Microsoft also touts the critical success of Xbox Live Arcade’s titles.  According to the press release, over 60 XBLA games scored a 75 or better on Metacritic, lead by Braid, Geometry Wars, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.  The release finishes up with a brief tease of some of 2009’s XBLA offerings, including Lode Runner, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, South Park, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix and R-Type Dimensions.

It’s hard to believe that over 60 XBLA games averaged more than 75 on Metacritic.  I know there were a lot of great releases on the service, but 60 is a lot. While there are plenty of telling numbers in the release, some vital ones were left out.  For example, we know that 110 million gamers downloaded trial versions of games, but how many actually went ahead and bought the full versions?    We’ll probably never know, but we can expect some numbers on retail games from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo some time in January or February.  We’ll be there to report them, all you have to do is read them.

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