Modern Warfare 3 Tops Nielsen's Most-Wanted List

Handicapping the holiday horse race is always a favorite pastime of gamers (check out our own musings on the subject in yesterday's GI podcast), and survey data collector Nielsen has released its own list of the top 20 games people are excited about this holiday season.

Not surprisingly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 tops Nielsen's Top 20 Games to Watch list, which according to the company was compiled via an online survey of approximately 5,000 gamers. Modern Warfare 3 came out on top because 27% of respondents chose it as one of the top five titles they were considering buying. To be eligible for the list, games had to have at least one home console version as well as come out between late August and late November.

Other games on list include Gears of War 3 (ranked 2), Madden NFL 2012 (3), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (6), Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (11), and Dead Island (15, and which is the only new IP to appear on the list). The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? Fourteenth place.

Neilsen also reported the findings of sister social media intelligence company NM Incite which monitored 417,433,251 online conversations about these games to track what features about the titles gamers were talking about the most. For instance, for Batman: Arkham City, online talk centered around the villains in the game, while for Need for Speed: The Run, it was about anticipating the game as a Christmas gift.

For more, be sure to check out the full list.