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Call of Duty Nukes the 2010 Decade as the Biggest Game Franchise

Last Updated September 23, 2020 1:30 PM
Thomas Bardwell
Last Updated September 23, 2020 1:30 PM
  • New data published by analyst firm The NPD Group.
  • Call of Duty is the best-selling franchise from 2010 to 2019.
  • Ten Call of Duty titles feature in the top 20 best-selling games.

According to new data published by analyst firm The NPD Group, Call of Duty is the best selling franchise of the last decade.

NDP analyst, Mat Piscatella, published his monthly video recap of NPD’s latest findings yesterday , in which he covers the best selling games of Dec. 2019 as well as touching on the top-selling games of the 2010s.

Call of Duty Dominates Top 20 Best-Selling Games 2010-2019

While Rockstar Games’ perennial cash cow, Grand Theft Auto V, took the top spot as the best selling game, Activision Blizzard’s first-person shooter franchise dominated much of the top 20.

Of the top 20 best selling games from 2010 to 2019 based on physical and full game digital sales from the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox platforms, ten were Call of Duty games.

Here’s the full top 20 for reference:

1. Grand Theft Auto V
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
6. Call of Duty: Ghosts
7. Red Dead Redemption 2
8 Call of Duty: WWII
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops IV
10. Minecraft
11. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
12. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
13. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
14. Mario Kart 8
15. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
16. Battlefield 1
17. Battlefield 4
18. Destiny
19. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
20. Star Wars Battlefront 2015

Modern Warfare The Best-Selling Game of 2019

The NPD Group data also confirmed that 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the best selling game for Dec. 2019, much like it was a month earlier in November. Unsurprisingly, 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare secured the spot as the best selling game of 2019. And this despite its share of controversies.

Call of Duty Is the Best-Selling Franchise of the Last Decade
Source: The NPD Group

It’s worth noting that NPD data only accounts for US sales and doesn’t factor in worldwide sales.

Nevertheless, given the size of the US video game market, which tallied up to $30.4 billion of the global total of $137.9 billion in 2018 , it offers a reasonably insightful sample of which games dominated the last decade.