Variety has posted a list of 2008's ten most rented games, courtesy of Rentrak. There are some interesting tidbits here. Despite the Wii having a much larger installed base, the top five spots belong to Xbox 360 games. In fact, Microsoft's console dominates the list, with only a few Wii titles and no PlayStation 3 titles to be found. Anyway, here's the top ten followed by some random thoughts:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
   
2. Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360)
   
3. Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
   
4. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360)
   
5. Army of Two (Xbox 360)
   
6. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
   
7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
   
8. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360)
   
9. Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360)
   
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii)

The data is pretty fascinating. It shows that the millions of mainstream customers Nintendo snagged with the Wii aren't really game renters. Well color me surprised (with a touch of yellow). You'd think that a cheap rental would appeal to casual gamers more than paying full price for a game. Perhaps these customers are only buying one or two games per year and satisfied with that.

While the PlayStation 3 still has a lot of catching up to do, it's very interesting that it didn't have a single title on the list. No Metal Gear Solid 4? Really?!?

Like Variety's Ben Fritz, I was shocked that Super Mario Galaxy didn't make the cut and was utterly impressed by Fallout 3's performance, considering that it wasn't out for very long. I was also totally surprised by Army of Two's popularity.

What do you think of this list? Anything on the list surprise you? Do guys rent many games? Or do you just buy?

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