2020 was a hard year for everyone. With COVID-19 keeping us indoors, entertainment like Video Games kept us from going stir crazy. Recently, the NPD Group released the top 20 best-selling games of 2020, and the results are quite surprising, to say the least. Take a look below for the list:
Best-Selling Games of 2020
- Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizon
- Madden 21
- Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
- The Last of Us Part 2
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Mario Kart 8 DeluxeÂ
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Marvel’s Avengers
- Marvel’s Spider-Man
- NBA 2K21
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- FIFA 21
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
- MLB: The Show 20
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Tony Hawk: Pro Skater 1+2
According to NPD’s report, total game sales were around $57 billion, with game sales up by 27% from 2019, hardware sales up by 35%, Gaming Content up 26%, and Video Game Accessories sales up by 21%.
As shown above, the best-sellers were mostly from 2020, though a few from 2019 made in, including Modern Warfare, Mortal Kombat 11, and MLB The Show 20 (MLB 21 didn’t even crack the list). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate continue to sell well, despite the games releasing in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Nintendo’s biggest launches in 2020 cracked the top 10, which included Super Mario 3D All-Stars at number 9 and Animal Crossing: New Horizon at number 3, making New Horizon the best-selling exclusive in 2020.
Some other surprises included Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot outselling both Tony Hawk: Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 (digital sales were not taken into Cyberpunk’s sales), and Marvel’s Avengers narrowly outselling Spider-Man: Miles Morales, despite the former failing to make back it’s development budget and the latter releasing on both the PS4 and PS5.
The companies that had the best-sellers include the likes of Nintendo, with the before mentioned Switch games, Sony with The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and Final Fantasy VII Remake breaking the top 10, EA with sports games like Madden 21 and FIFA 21(despite controversies regarding Madden 21’s lack of content and FIFA’s re-release on Switch) and Activision with Black Ops: Cold War and Modern Warfare as the two best-selling games of 2020.
One startling report was when it came to Rockstar Games. Despite continual sales throughout the years, neither GTA V nor Red Dead Redemption II cracked the top 20 this year. Only NBA 2K21 broke into the top 20 as the only game from Take 2 Interactive.
