The NPD Group recently listed the ten best-selling third-party games across all consoles for the last 20 years. The data used to compile the list spans from 1995 (when the NPD Group first started tracking data) to May 2019, and focuses on total dollar sales. It excludes digital sales as the group only started tracking digital in 2012.
It’s not surprising that GTA V topped the list as the title is one of the highest-selling video games of all-time. In addition, if you guessed that Call of Duty would feature too, you’d be correct. You can view the full list below:
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Rock Band
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Call of Duty: WWII
It’s definitely an interesting compilation and shows that people really love Call of Duty. They also seemed to enjoy rhythm-based games sometime ago. Many may have asked the question where’s Minecraft as it holds the title of being the second highest-selling video game of all time. It’s absence from the list could be due to the fact that it launched on the PC, sold most of its copies via digital sales and took some time before it reached consoles.
Though the list isn’t entirely accurate, it still paints an interesting picture in terms of what has driven sales over the years. It also shows which are some of the best genre-pushing games. Let’s see if this list will remain consistent over the next 20 years or whether we will see a major shift in genres in future.
Are you surprised by the NPD list?
