We know gamers have been buying the most of the games over the last few years, and it probably won’t surprise you that Call of Duty is on top of that list. But it’s Rockstar‘s magnum opus, Grand Theft Auto V, is the cherry on the cake.
https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1217953586551746561
The NPD Group released its list of the US’s top best-selling games of 2010-2019, and it’s exciting to see what we were playing the most in microcosm. It’s not a huge surprise that Grand Theft Auto V has achieved to snag the top spot — I feel as I’ve seen it in the monthly best-seller list every month since it was once hit the stores.
The single-player game was excellent and surely what drove the original sales, it was probably the extension of the GTA Online multiplayer mode that’s saved the game in the top spot. It’s a bit ironic, regarding Rockstar and GTA were so known in the previous decade for its not-very-family-friendly games. Red Dead Redemption 2 also gets on the list — also not unexpected considering it’s just a bloody good game.
What is actually surprising for me just a bit was how consistently Call of Duty appears on the list. As PC Gamer pointed out, 7 out of the top 10 games are in the shooter genre. All 10 of the Call of Duty games released in the last ten years are in the top 20 — even the silly ones. NPD’s analyst, Mat Piscatella, said on Twitter that 2019 was the 11th continuous year Call of Duty has been the best-selling gaming franchise.
I’m not joking: we really love Call of Duty. Just to give you some sense of how insane CoD‘s market dominance is, Modern Warfare made the number 12 place on the list and it’s only been on the store a few months. Even Infinite Warfare got to the 15th slot and I thought everyone disliked that game. But apparently even a not so good CoD will still be played by every gamer.
The NPD Group: U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games by Decade 2000 through 2019 ranked on dollar sales #videogames pic.twitter.com/5RmKgISbNi
— NPD Games (@npdgames) January 17, 2020