Gamasutra has published sales data for the month of February – a bumper period for Xbox Live Arcade that saw the release of heavy-hitters like Gotham City Impostors and The Simpsons Arcade alongside Alan Wake’s American Nightmare and Warp, the latter two as part of Microsoft’s annual House Party event.

February kicked off with the launch of The Simpsons Arcade. The classic port accumulated a healthy 35,868 players throughout the month while also fending off other newcomers Happy Action Theater and Rhythm Party to become the best-selling title for its opening week.

While there’s no concrete sales data for Happy Action Theater, Double Fine’s Kinect-only title acquired the highest Metacritic ranking of all games released throughout February (no small feat considering it’s a Kinect mini-game compilation). Happy Action Theater also secured 7th spot in Major Nelson’s leaderboards for the week beginning January 30.

Shank 2 managed only 20,879 sales throughout the month despite releasing to some fanfare while Monolith’s first person shooter Gotham City Impostors dwarfed that number, smashing through the 100K barrier to reach 108,064 players in the space of just three weeks. It outsold The Simpsons Arcade, Shank 2, Alan Wake and Warp combined (although, in the interest of fairness, it did release a week prior to Warp and two weeks before Alan Wake). Still, a major success story for Monolith.

Following Impostor’s triumph, Microsoft’s annual House Party campaign kicked off with Trapdoor Inc.’s action/stealth hybrid Warp. Warp managed 11,010 sales in its first week, finishing off the month with just 17,682 players. Remedy’s sequel to its AAA title Alan Wake – Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – fared somewhat better with 27,558 sales in its first week, although Gamasutra point out that 27,558 is still significantly lower than previous House Party titles.

For more in depth sales analysis, including commentary on the latest Pinball FX2 downloadable content and Kinect smash-hit Fruit Ninja Kinect, visit Gamasutra.

Source: Gamasutra