Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and Plants vs Zombies the most popular Windows Phone games of 2011

It seems Xbox Live's Major Nelson has spent the first week of 2012 feverishly flicking the beads on his abacus.

The latest update to his blog reveals the top 20 games on Windows Phone 7. As the preamble states, he has based his chart statistics on a combination of Unique User numbers and full purchases between Jan 1st, 2011, and December 31st, 2011.

Kings of the hill

Blockbuster sequels and spin-offs like The Sims 3, Sonic 4 Episode 1, Need for Speed Undercover, and Fable: Coin Golf all made the list, showing that console franchises have gained a solid footing on Microsoft's mobile OS.

Board game conversions also performed strongly, with Uno and Monopoly both making the top 20, while Full House Poker cashed in its chips at number five.

WP7 users showed a little love for the classics in 2011, with iconic titles like Bejeweled Live and the puzzle genre's great granddaddy Tetris also making the cut.

Best of the best

Meanwhile, critical breakthroughs (and Pocket Gamer Award winners) like geoDefense, and ilimilo proved commercially successful, taking the 10 and 11 spots respectively.

As for the top three, the line-up is as familiar to mobile users as funny dancing is to bees.

Botanical artillery shooter Plants vs Zombies came in at number three, showing that no matter what OS you use, mowing down undead hordes with a battalion of geraniums never gets old.

Swiping aggressively from the number two position was grocery-griefing sim Fruit Ninja, introducing WP7 users to the wonderful world of digitally dissected coconuts.

And, continuing to conquer every download list regardless of platform, Angry Birds catapulted past the opposition to become the most downloaded game on WP7 in 2011.

The question is, can anyone topple the Mighty Eagle from its perch in 2012?

Here is the full WP7 top 20 of 2011:

1. Angry Birds
2. Fruit Ninja
3. Plants vs Zombies
4. Need for Speed Undercover
5. Full House Poker
6. Monopoly
7. Doodle jump
8. Bejeweled live
9. Rise Of Glory
10. geoDefense
11. ilomilo
12. Assassin's Creed Altaïr's Chronicles HD
13. Sonic 4 Episode I
14. Tetris
15. Fable: Coin Golf
16. Hydro Thunder GO
17. The Harvest
18. Uno
19. Tentacles
20. The Sims 3