This is a listing of the best-selling video games in the United States annually by units sold since 1980, with sales figures from The NPD Group since 1994.[1] The United States is a very competitive market for video game developers. Games from different developers around the world have entered the annual lists of top ten best-selling games in the United States. The most successful developers are mostly from Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
Among the 41 reported annual top-sellers between 1980 and 2022, thirteen were published by Nintendo, twelve by Activision Blizzard, four each by Atari and Take-Two Interactive, three by Electronic Arts, and two each by Sega and Acclaim Entertainment. Video game publishers Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts managed to enter the list of ten best-selling games every single year with at least one of their games for the last fifteen years in a row. Of the twelve best-selling games released in the last thirteen years, eleven were from Call of Duty franchise and published by Activision Blizzard. Madden NFL and the Call of Duty series have been on the annual top ten best-sellers list twelve times over the last twelve years. Call of Duty has been the best-selling video game series in the US for the past 15 years.
Grand Theft Auto V was the best-selling game of 2013.[30][31] The game became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history three days after its release.[32]
The best-selling game of 2016 was Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Among the top ten best-selling games in 2016, eight were multiplayer games and the other two had multiplayer modes. Among the ten titles, three were published by Activision Blizzard, three by Electronic Arts, two by Take-Two Interactive, and one each by Ubisoft and Square Enix.[35]
The best-selling game of 2017 was Call of Duty: WWII, followed by NBA 2K18 and Destiny 2. PUBG is absent from the list due to PUBG Corporation not sharing sales data with the NPD. Nintendo also do not share digital sales data with the NPD, thus Nintendo games are under-represented.[36]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II from Activision Blizzard was the best-selling video game in the United States in 2022.[42] The game outperformed the previous record-holders for the series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from 2011 and Black Ops II from 2012.[43]
Hogwarts Legacy from Warner Bros. Games was the best-selling video game in the United States in 2023. For the first time in 15 years, the best-selling video game in the US was not a game from Activision or Rockstar Games. However, due to the NPD being unable to track Nintendo digital sales data, only physical sales are counted for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.[44] The NPD is also unable to track Battle.net sales for Diablo IV. Call of Duty finished 2023 as the best-selling video game series in the US market for the 15th consecutive year.
^ abCartridge Sales Since 1980. Atari Corp. Via "The Agony & The Ecstasy". Once Upon Atari. Episode 4. Scott West Productions. August 10, 2003. 23 minutes in.
^DeMaria, Rusel; Meston, Zach (1991). Super Mario World Game Secrets. Prima Publishing. p. 6. ISBN978-1-55958-156-1. Super Mario Bros. featured Mario in a romp through eight delightfully varied worlds, each one jam-packed with action and adventure. The game sold more than one million copies in 1986 alone. (Today, Super Mario Bros. comes packaged with the NES.)
^Asian Sources Gifts & Home Products. Vol. 9. Trade Media Limited. 1991. pp. 260–1. Toy production climbed 5.2 percent amounting to 439,900 million yen in 1989. (...) Best sellers in the United States were the Action Set, Ninja Turtle and Game Boy, all made by Nintendo.
^"Video Hits: 1992's top video-game sellers". Business Week. No. 3335–3338. McGraw-Hill. 1993. p. 6. 1992's top video-game sellers Rank Company/Game Millions sold 1 Sega / Sonic The Hedgehog 2 2.0 2 Capcom / Street Fighter II 1.0 3 Nintendo / The Legend of Zelda 1.0 Data: Company Reports
^Carlton, Jim (November 23, 1995). "Fans remain loyal to 16-bit machines". The Hartford Courant. The Wall Street Journal. p. E2. Retrieved December 7, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Nintendo's 'Killer Instinct' has sold more than 1 million copies since it was introduced in September, as has the Nintendo version of 'Mortal Kombat III' and the company's recently released 'Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island.'
^Thompson, Adam (22 October 1997). "The pain of addiction". Oshkosh Advance-Titan. University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. p. 9. Retrieved 9 April 2022. Last month Final Fantasy VII hit the stores and sold 1.5 million copies the first week.
