At about the midway mark through each month, The NPD Group reveals the best selling games of the month before, or in some cases the entire year. This being the first month of the year, the company has announced the best selling games of 2020.
Call of Duty led the pack for 2020, with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare being the top two selling games of the year. It even overcame heavy hitters like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was the best selling game in France in 2020.
For anything with an asterisk, digital sales weren't included in the final tallies. So it's possible that, were digital sales included, Cyberpunk 77, NBA 2K21, and some Nintendo titles might have ended up higher on the list. Still Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was also the best selling title in December, and with the popularity of the series, it would probably still have been the top seller of 2020, even with digital sales included.
Here's the full list of the best selling games for all of 2020:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
- Madden NFL 21
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
- The Last of Us: Part II
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Mario Kart 8: Deluxe*
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
- Final Fantasy VII: Remake
- Marvel's Avengers
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- NBA 2K21*
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- FIFA 21
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
- MLB The Show 20
- Cyberpunk 2077*
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are popular Call of Duty titles, so it's unsurprising to see them take the top two spots like this. The Activision series has always been incredibly popular. Especially in a year where Covid kept everyone inside, people could use games like Call of Duty to stay in touch with friends and keep entertained.
Of course, with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War doing so well this year, it's worrying that so many people might ignore Black Ops Cold War's revisionist politics. Like many Call of Duty games, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War presents a world where America is always in the right, and its crimes are either justified, or actually the work of someone else. Because Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a video game, the political ideas that it presents often go without critical examination. Simply looked at an excuse plot to set up the action scenes, rather than a very deliberate attempt at pro-American political propaganda.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are out now for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X, and PC.
Source: GameSpot