Since the very first Guitar Hero made rockstars out of gamers in 2005, the Guitar Hero franchise has managed to pull in over $1 billion in retail sales in North America alone. According to the Marketing and Research firm the NPD Group, that is a record number of sales in just 26 months.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock also ranked as the best-selling video game of all time in a single calendar year, that year being 2007. And, in the 10 weeks the game has been out, gamers have already downloaded more than five million songs! Will Guitar Hero become another household name like Spiderman, or has it already?

This is yet another proof that video games are becoming much more of the norm than something for those nerdy boys. As we saw earlier with ESPN starting to cover gaming tournaments, the fact that so many people in North America will have played Guitar Hero also shows that the video game culture is dangerously contagious - in a good way of course.

Being a rockstar has been on everyone’s mind, and I think it’s safe to say that everyone has dreamt of being one at some point in time. Guitar Hero makes that somewhat of a reality, which might be a source of its immense popularity and success. Dance Dance Revolution, though still a great game, never reached this level of popularity, and neither did Donkey Konga for the GameCube. I guess no one wanted to be a famous bongo drummer?

I am embarassed to admit this, but I have been watching a new TV show, Gossip Girl, which actually featured Guitar Hero in one of its episodes where the teenagers went to a party and, what were most of the kids doing? Playing Guitar Hero. This game is somewhat of a cultural icon, and we should definitely stick a Guitar Hero III bundle in a time capsule.