Games Released in 2002

2,330 new games released in 2002 across 10 platforms, with PC (Microsoft Windows) being the most popular seeing 829 new titles. November was the busiest month of the year, launching 351 new releases.

Top Platform

PC (Microsoft Windows)

New Releases

2,330

Busiest Month

November

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

What was the most popular game of 2002?

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real-time strategy game set in the high fantasy world of Azeroth. Players control one of four factions, the Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, Night Elves, or Undead Scourge, each with unique units, structures, and hero characters that gain experience and abilities through combat. The single-player campaign follows a sequential narrative across four faction-specific chapters. Multiplayer is supported through Battle.net with ranked matchmaking. The game includes a World Editor that allows players to create custom maps and scenarios, which gave rise to influential community creations including the mod Defense of the Ancients.

Which days had the most releases?

October 4 was the busiest single day of 2002 with 42 releases.

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42 releases

October 4

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41 releases

March 28

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36 releases

December 6

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36 releases

October 25

Which month had the most releases?

The busiest release month of 2002 was November, totaling 351 titles.

How did each season compare?

Q4 was the busiest quarter of 2002 with 879 releases.

Q1 (Jan–Mar)

591 releases
Kingdom Hearts

Most popular release in Q1

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is an action role-playing game developed and published by Squaresoft for the PlayStation 2. It is the result of a collaboration between Square and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney's animated features with those from the Final Fantasy series, developed by Square. Kingdom Hearts was a departure from Square's standard role-playing games by introducing a substantial action-adventure element. In addition, it has an all-star voice cast which included many of the Disney characters' official voice actors. Kingdom Hearts was longtime Square character designer Tetsuya Nomura's first time in a directorial position. The game uses an experience based progression system, with experience gained by defeating foes. Experience gained rises in relation to the strength of the foe, and is consistent for each enemy over the course of the game. Levels are gained with experience, and provide increases to stat attributes in strength, defence, magic, hit points, magic points and ability points, with a new, predetermined ability unlocked approximately every four levels.

Which platforms saw the most releases?

PC (Microsoft Windows) received 829 new titles in 2002, holding the most releases. The runner up was PlayStation 2 with 657 new titles.

PC (Microsoft Windows)829 releases
PlayStation 2657 releases
Game Boy Advance543 releases
Nintendo GameCube285 releases
PlayStation284 releases
Xbox274 releases
Mac98 releases
e-Reader / Card-e Reader62 releases
Web browser47 releases
Dreamcast45 releases

What genres were most popular?

Adventure was the dominant genre in 2002 with 470 titles. Sport followed closely with 354.

Adventure470
Sport354
Shooter301
Simulator280
Role-playing268
Strategy250
Platform203
Racing194
Puzzle170
Arcade158
20012003