Since the end of E3, a major gaming industry conference, many have speculated about which titles generated the most hype (and consumer interest) out of the gate. In terms of online buzz volume, several newly announced titles grabbed the lion’s share of attention with New Super Mario Brothers Wii leading the pack with 4.6 percent of E3 buzz. But looking at gamer sentiment in Nielsen’s Video Game Tracking survey shows that Halo ODST and God of War III lead in consumer purchase interest as of last week.

The table below shows total positive purchase interest (definitely or probably interested in buying the title) for games that garnered at least 30 percent on this metric and will be released at least a month from now.  For most of these twelve titles, either a trailer was released or gameplay was demoed in some form at E3. But interestingly, there were not massive spikes in consumer interest in purchasing these titles from pre- to post-E3. Most moved up or down 1-2 percent at most, which is well within the margin of error. In other words, games that already tugged at gamers’ hearts held on.