The demos of Mirror’s Edge and Too Human had strong online showings in 2008, but the full versions failed to captivate Xbox Live users in the same way, according to Microsoft’s annual rankings of top-played games.

Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb posted the rankings to his blog on Sunday, showing that the Mirror’s Edge demo was the 12th most popular game for Xbox Live members. Its full-game counterpart was nowhere to be seen on the top 20 list.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed also achieved this dubious distinction, but it has an excuse: With no online play, it’s possible that a great number of people were playing it without an Xbox Live connection. The demo for Battlefield: Bad Company also appeared on the list, at number eight, but so did the full version of the game, at number 14.

We can wade far into speculation territory to figure out why Mirror’s Edge and Too Human had relatively poor showings compared to their demos. For the former game, the inclusion of a somewhat robust time trial mode (for pre-orders first, but ultimately unlocked for all), plus the criticism of repetitive gameplay could have sealed its fate. As for Too Human, it was a thoroughly hyped title that didn’t quite live up to expectations.

Unsurprisingly, the top games on Xbox Live in 2008 were Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. Grand Theft Auto IV and the two Gears of War titles rounded out the top five. Their respective betas and demos didn’t make the list.