2012 was a big year for ROBLOX and our users. Along with the many product releases and events that came along, we released a bunch of new gear and saw our users create a bevy of new and unique ROBLOX games. We thought we’d take a look back at the top 15 most popular games of 2012 and, while we were at it, dig up some item and gear statistics as well. Remember, we’re only counting data from 2012 — some of these popular games have millions more visits when you consider their lifetime stats.

Most Visited Games of 2012

1. Base Wars: The Land – 15,189,409 visits
2. Catalog Heaven – 11,602,354 visits
3. Rollercoaster Into a Black Hole Obby! (Now known as Jump Into the Ball Pit and Survive!) – 11,501,222 visits
4. Paintball! – 10,096.274 visits
5. Call of Robloxia 5 – ROBLOX At War – 8,184,995 visits
6. Welcome to the Town of Robloxia – 7,455,373 visits
7. Build a Hideout and Fight – 6,812,161 visits
8. The Complex V.4 – 6,703,501 visits
9. Build to Survive the Zombies – 6,645,146 visits
10. Sword Fighting Tournament – 6,477,147 visits
11. Monsters Vs Robloxians (Now known as Be A Superhero Go To Highschool) – 5,403,099 visits
12. Disaster Hotel – 4,976,622 visits
13. Super Fun Obby – 4,957,167 visits
14. Apocalypse Rising – 4,844,229 visits
15. DriveBlox Unlimited – 4,654,125 visits

Comparing the top games from this past year to the top games of 2011 yields some interesting results — only three of the top games on the list were on both lists. This speaks volumes about our platform –some games get it so right that they can stand the test of time. But with so many new and innovative games constantly flooding the Games page, this is a rare occurrence. Call of ROBLOXia: ROBLOX at War, Base Wars: The Land, and Rollercoaster Into a Black Hole Obby stood the test of time, appearing on the top 15 list for two years in a row.

Let’s move on to gear. We decided purposely to exclude gear items that were promotional because those items were free, and we want to know which gear sold the most over the course of the year. Here’s the list.

Most Sold Gear of 2012

1. Body Swap Potion – 26,321 sold
2. Spray Paint – 11,949 sold
3. Egg Cannon 9000 – 11,002 sold
4. Speed Coil – 9,386 sold
5. 2013 Firework – 9,319 sold
6. Phoenix – 9,084 sold
7. Flying Magic Carpet – 8,867 sold
8. Bluster Buster – 8,376 sold
9. Captain Steelshanks Recruiting Staff – 7,232 sold
10. Telamax xTreme Dual Shoulder Cannons – 6,847 sold

The best-selling gear item of the year was the Body Swap Potion. When equipped, you can click on another place and you will swap appearances and locations with that player. This chaotic capability is useful in a wide variety of contexts, which probably explains some of its popularity. In a battle game, it affords all kinds of exciting tactical options to confuse the enemy. In a social game, it’s just pure fun to ape your comrades.

Finally, let’s look into our top-selling items. We’ve removed from consideration all promotional items that we published this year (some of which were incredibly popular).

Most Sold Items of 2012

1. Ostrichsized Winter Scarf – 22,673 sold
2. Tweet Tweet – 22,660 sold
3. Crimson Winter Scarf – 20,814 sold
4. Valentine’s Day 2012 Cap – 19,817 sold
5. Spiky Halloween Shades – 19,636 sold
6. Saint Patrick’s Day 2012 – 19,242
7. Red Flowered Cloche – 18,011
8. Dark Blue Light Hair – 14,617
9. Charming Brown Haired Fellow – 13,300
10. Opened Gift of the All Seeing Eyes – 13,297

Despite being released in mid-December, OstrichSized‘s winter scarf was our best seller for the year. I talked to Web Team Lead Isaiah Merrill (aka OstrichSized) about this virtual item, which is modeled after his trademark winter scarf. He pointed out that this item hit the “sweet spot” between “style,” “seasonality,” and “pure value.” Pick one up today for 20 Robux in the catalog while supplies last!