Common gaming knowledge would possibly inform you that Call of Duty’s greatest years are prior to now, and the collection’ largest gross sales numbers aren’t going to be repeated. A newly launched little bit of NPD knowledge suggests in any other case, although. With one exception, a Call of Duty title has been the highest promoting game within the US yearly since 2009.
That prepare begins with Modern Warfare 2 and carries on by final yr’s WWII. The solely break in custom is available in 2013, when the impossibly well-liked Grand Theft Auto V topped the generally-maligned launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts. This knowledge relies on full game greenback gross sales throughout each bodily and digital releases.
There are a few caveats to that knowledge. Not each firm studies its digital game gross sales, although Activision, EA, Sony, Microsoft, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. all do. Separately, not each firm studies gross sales on PC, and Activision is amongst those that don’t inform Steam numbers – Valve’s service is how each digital PC COD launch has been dealt with up till Black Ops 4.
But even with out the addition of PC gross sales, COD has topped the US charts with unbelievable regularity for many of the previous decade, based on the info from NPD’s Mat Piscatella on Twitter. He adds that “best-selling games now can generate more than 5x the dollar volume the top selling games of the late 90’s could.”
Here are the best-selling Video Games within the U.S. by yr, 1995-2017. Physical & Digital (for members of DLP) Full Game greenback gross sales (no DLC/MTX). There is kind of a bit to unpack right here, is not there. Source: The NPD Group pic.twitter.com/7ykbu8kJS9
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) November 7, 2018
The different massive change within the fashionable market is the proliferation of free-to-play titles and different alternate monetization methods. NPD’s knowledge will inform us whether or not Black Ops Four or Red Dead Redemption 2 comes out on prime this yr, however total Fortnite revenue is probably going make any such debate appear foolish. What’s sure is that Call of Duty stays extremely well-liked even in any case these years.
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