2015 NPD: Call of Duty Leads Video Games Sales Once Again

For the seventh straight year, a Call of Duty title leads the year’s annual NPD results.

Despite a dip in last-gen sales in December, the United States retail gaming industry did quite well in 2015. For the second straight year, U.S. retailers made $13.1 billion, according to the 2015 NPD results. A big part of the continued success at the brick-and-mortar stores is in no small part thanks to the following ten games, ranked in order from most sold to least sold in the year 2015:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
2. Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
3. Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
4. Star Wars: Battlefront (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
5. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One) 360, PS3, PC)
6. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
7. Minecraft (360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4)
8. FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
9. Mortal Kombat X (PS4, Xbox One)
10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)

That’s right, the 2015 NPD summary report is book-ended by Call of Duty games, one of which was released roughly 14 months ago. Both are lead by the Xbox One in terms of non-bundled software sales, despite the fact that Sony partnered with Activision for the PS4 become the DLC and official partner of Call of Duty starting in 2015.

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Regardless, some real surprises include Minecraft’s undying power to shift retail discs years after launch. Beyond that, despite annualization of their franchises, Need For Speed and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate both failed to chart in the Top 10 this year. Whether or not this has to do with a top-heavy Top 6 on the 2015 NPD results or the fact that both franchises have gone past the peak of market saturation remains to be seen.

Disappointing is the fact that not one single title in the 2015 NPD Top 10 is available on the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita or the Wii U. The Wii U’s unremarkable sales have been well documented and noted, but the fact that in a year where the New Nintendo 3DS XL were launched in the United States we saw not one title chart in the Top 10 seems like a lost opportunity. The PS Vita is…the PS Vita.