Well folks, we’re nearly a full month into 2009 and as such, the folks with the giant calculators and pocket protectors have broken down some of last year’s sales figures for us to base exaggerated headlines around analyze. And though there are certainly greater extrapolations to take out of 2008’s best selling games list, The NPD Group has compiled the various versions of both Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 for comparisons sake. And what did they find? Mind-boggilingly, Guitar Hero outsold Rock Band at nearly 2:1.

Over the course of 2008, Guitar Hero: World Tour loosed 3.4 million copies (across all version of their game) onto an unsuspecting American populace only too happy to gobble up its “Hot Topic”-based version of “Rock’n'Roll”, while Rock Band 2 sold only 1.7 million copies (again, across all versions). One explanation could be the relative brand power of the Guitar Hero franchise versus the less well-known Rock Band (and Forbes isn’t helping the situation!). Another could be the varied release schedule of Rock Band 2 across different consoles versus the single day release of all Guitar Hero: World Tour versions. Either way, while we’re not baffled as to why something like this might occur, we are disappointed.

You can do better than this, America! We know you can!

(Via IGN/GameSpot UK)