NPD reveals the best-selling games of 2020 in the United States

The past year has been huge for game sales due to more people staying at home during the pandemic. With premium entertainment, familiar gaming brands have grown in popularity. This has led to huge sales for Call of Duty, Madden, and everything Nintendo. And you’ll find all of these in the top 20 best-selling games of 2020 in the United States, according to industry tracker The NPD Group.

Here is the full ranking:

Rank		Top 20 games 2020 (Full-featured physical digital gameplay from Nintendo eShop, PlayStation, STEAM and Xbox platforms for Digital Leader Panel publishers) ranked on dollar sales	Editor
1		Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War	Activision Blizzard (Corp)
2		Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	Activision Blizzard (Corp)
3		Animal Crossing: New horizons *	Nintendo
4		Madden NFL 21	Electronic arts
5		Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla	Ubisoft
6		The Last of Us: Part II	Sony (Corp)
seven		Ghost of Tsushima	Sony (Corp)
8		Mario Kart 8: Deluxe *	Nintendo
9		Super Mario 3D All-Stars *	Nintendo
ten		Final Fantasy VII: Remake	Square Enix Inc (Corp)
11		Marvel’s Avengers	Square Enix Inc (Corp)
12		Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales	Sony (Corp)
13		NBA 2K21 *	Take 2 Interactive (Corp)
14		Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *	Nintendo
15		FIFA 21	Electronic arts
16		Mortal Kombat 11	Warner Bros. Interactive
17		Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot	Bandai Namco Entertainment
18		MLB: the show 20	Sony (Corp)
19		Cyberpunk 2077 *	Warner Bros. Interactive
20		Tony Hawk 1 + 2 Professional Skater	Activision Blizzard (Corp)
		* Digital sales not included

Total video game sales also set a new high of $ 57 billion across all categories. That’s a 27% increase year over year. The release of new hardware has been a major force behind this growth. But the content and accessories for games have also seen growth.

Here are the full results for 2020, according to NPD:

Sales in 2020 dollars, millions		2019	2020	CHG
Total video game sales		$ 44,926	$ 56,905	27%
Video game equipment		$ 3,937	$ 5,307	35%
Video game content (consumer spending for full physical and digital games, DLC / MTX and subscription on console, cloud, mobile *, portable, PC and VR platforms)		$ 38,824	$ 48,981	26%
Video game accessories		$ 2,165	$ 2,617	21%
* Mobile expenses provided by Sensor Tower

Call of Duty

Call of Duty is, once again, the obvious winner on this graph. The series has the top two locations with 2020 Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War and 2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare at # 2.

“Call of Duty ranked as the best-selling game franchise in the US market for a record 12th consecutive year,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella.

Nintendo

Nintendo is one of the other stars for 2020. And while the company has some blockbuster hits in games like Animal Cross: New Horizons, it’s also enjoying success in its library.

“Half of the 20 best-selling games for December 2020 were released by Nintendo,” said Piscatella. “In 2020, Animal Crossing had the highest physical sales for a game released by Nintendo in a calendar year since Wii Fit Plus in 2010.”

Cyberpunk 2077

Developer CD Projekt Red previously confirmed that it has sold more than 13 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077. But the studio does not share digital sales data with the NPD Group. Despite this, the game has always performed well thanks to its physical sales.

“Cyberpunk 2077 debuted as the second best-selling game of December,” Piscatella said. “And it’s the 19th best-selling game of 2020, despite the lack of digital tracking.”

The Last of Us Part II

PlayStation’s big-budget exclusive, The Last of Us Part II, was also a commercial success.

“The Last of Us: Part II finished 2020 as the best-selling PlayStation exclusive of the year, while also ranking sixth for the best-selling titles overall,” Piscatella said. “The Last of Us: Part II now ranks as the third best-selling Sony released game in US history by dollar sales, behind only Marvel’s Spider-Man and God of War in 2018. “