Rock Band

We all knew Rock Band would be big, but it seems this excellent music game is even more popular than we had initially believed.

According to GameDaily, Viacom (parent company of MTV, which owns Harmonix), has announced that Rock Band has managed to ship "more than three million bundled units" since its launch last November. That's certainly a healthy number, and one that likely rivals - if not trumps - Activision's competing title, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. On top of this, Harmonix has revealed that over 10 million songs have been downloaded off the Internet, which only proves that those downloadable packs are both highly sought-after and extremely lucrative. And much like Grand Theft Auto IV and Take-Two, Rock Band's success has caused Viacom's Media Networks division to leap.

"Media Networks revenues rose 16% to $2.02 billion, principally driven by strong sales of the music video game Rock Band," Viacom said in an official statement. "...our Rock Band video game is continuing its successful tour and is emerging as a valuable long-term franchise. We expect to further that success with the upcoming release of Rock Band on the Wii home video game system and our launch in Europe," commented Philippe Dauman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom.

Without any doubt, the music genre of video games, once a budding new category in the interactive entertainment world, now contains several of the most popular games in history. And Rock Band definitely qualifies.