Yesterday we gave you the raw data on the games people bought in the last year. Today we use that data to illuminate several observations about the individual companies and platforms and genres as well as gain some perspective on the industry as a whole.

Click here to check out the best selling games in list form. Similar information from the previous year is also available. 

Among the questions we'll answer:

• Which publisher generated the greatest unit sales in the top 100?
• Systems can live and die by exclusives – which systems got the lion's share of these jewels?
• Buying a system? We'll tell you which one can play more of the top 100 software titles than any other.
• Are people still buying licensed games by the truckload? Did music games beat out sports games? The genre rankings reveal all.
• And are European tastes different from American? You bet, and we'll show you just how different they can be.

On to the charts!

EA Leads In Titles & Sales

Electronic Arts took the top publisher spot in our list of the top 100 selling games, despite strong competition from both Nintendo and Activision. EA claimed 23 titles in our rankings, far ahead of Nintendo at 12 titles and Activision at 10. In a third tier of publishers, THQ, Ubisoft, and Sony each published six titles.

Of course, just looking at the number of titles doesn't reveal the whole story. If, instead, we look at unit sales by each publisher's games in the top 100, then the order shuffles a bit.

By this measure EA remains the leading publisher, with sales of nearly 40 million units. Both Nintendo and Activision gain ground on EA, but more importantly Activision's leap ahead of Nintendo into second place at nearly 30 million units.

The real success story here is Microsoft. With only three published titles in the top 100 – Forza Motorsport 2, Mass Effect, and Halo 3 – Microsoft still claimed 4th place in unit sales. Certainly most of Microsoft's 11.5 million in unit sales can be attributed to Halo 3, but the other two titles have great rankings too: Forza 2 at #20 and Mass Effect at #34.

Meanwhile the move to unit sales pushes Capcom off the bottom and raises Sega, whose Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has sold tremendously since its launch.