From an interesting blog entry from Rick Stirling, a character artist, about the polycount of game character models.

“So, I’ll warn casual readers again – the number of polygons used don’t matter if they are not used well. This is simply a technical markerpost to try and identify what certain games used on certain hardware at a certain time. Supposedly Halo 2 used less polygons for Masterchief than Halo 1, and I’ve heard that Call of Duty 4 used less polygons for the character models that CoD2 did – I suspect this will due to relying more heavily on normal mapping to create the details.”

Count

Dead or Alive series, Xbox, 2001-2004

Character – ~10,000-15,000

Gears of War, Xbox 360, 2006 (according to D’Artiste book)

Wretch – 10,000 polygons with diffuse, specular and normal maps

Marcus – 15,000 polygons with diffuse, specular and normal maps

GTA San Andreas, PS2, 2004

Characters – 2,000 polygons with 1 256×256 8bit texture

GTA IV, Xbox 360/PS3, 2008

Story Characters – 8-10,000 polygons with multiple 256×256/512×512 diffuse, specular and normal maps

Half-Life, PC, 1998

Zombie – 844 polygons

Halflife 2, PC, 2004

Alyx Vance – 8323 polygons

Barney – 5922 polygons

Combine Soldier – 4682 polygons

Halo, Xbox, 2001

Masterchief – 2,000 polygons

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, GC, 2002

Link – 2800 polygons

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, GC/Wii, 2006

Link – 6900 polygons

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, PS2, 2005

Snake – 4,000 polygons

Project Gotham Racing 2, Xbox, 2003

Vehicles – 10,000 polygons

Project Gotham Racing 3, Xbox 360, 2006

Vehicles – 80,000-100,000 polygons

Quake, PC, 1996

200 polygons with 1 320×200 8bit texture using predefined palette.

Quake 4, PC, 2006

Player model – 2,500 polygons with multiple diffuse, specular and normal maps

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, PS3, 2007

Main characters – ~20,000-30,000 polygons

Drake – ~30,000 polygons

Pirates – ~12,000-15,000 polygons

Unreal Tournament, PC, 1999

Player model – 800 polygons

Unreal Tournament 2k3, PC, 2003

Player model – 3,000 polygons

Unreal Tournament 3, PC, 2007

Weapon models – 4,500 to 12,000 triangles for the first person view

Virtua Fighter 5, Arcade/PS3/X360, 2006

Character – ~40,000 with diffuse, specular and normal maps

Background – 100,000 – 300,000 polygons

From Assassin’s Creed II