The top-selling games of 2019 and the entire decade have been revealed for the United States, and there are no surprises.
As expected, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare finished the year at No. 1, according to sales charts released by the NPD Group on Thursday. Call of Duty games are typically the year’s best-sellers, with the exception of when Rockstar puts out a game. For example, the only times in the past 10 years when Call of Duty was not No. 1 was in 2013 and 2018, when Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 were released.
Rounding out the top five for 2019 were NBA 2K20, Madden NFL 20, Borderlands 3, and Mortal Kombat 11. Respawn’s new Star Wars game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, ended 2019 at No. 6. You can see the full Top 10 chart below.
The NPD Group also released a ranking of the top-selling games of the decade, and Grand Theft Auto V unsurprisingly comes out on top. Call of Duty games also dominated the charts for the past decade, while Red Dead Redemption 2 and Minecraft made it into the top 10 as well. You can see the full top-selling games of the decade chart below.
For the full year of 2019, total spending on video games–covering hardware, software, and accessories–reached $14.6 billion, which is down 13 percent. Video game sales specifically fell nine percent to $6.6 billion. The Nintendo Switch was the only system that grew during 2019.
Dollar sales of tracked video game software declined 13 percent in December compared to a year ago, to $1.1 billion, while annual sales dropped nine percent to $6.6 billion. Declines were experienced across all platforms in December, while Switch was the only platform with gains for the year.
Spending on hardware in 2019 fell by a substantial 22 percent, to $3.9 billion. The Switch grew in 2019 but it was not enough to offset the downturn in PS4 and Xbox One sales. That is to be expected, given those systems are relatively older; both Sony and Microsoft are launching next-generation consoles this year. The Switch was the best-selling home console of 2019.
December 2019 Best-Selling Games (US Only)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
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