Despite it’s trailer becoming one of the most disliked videos in YouTube history, Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare is the best-selling video game in the US in 2016, according to the NPD.
Sports games ranked quite highly as well, with NBA 2K17, Madden NFL 17 and FIFA 17 appearing at 4th, 5th, and 9th respectively for both the yearly sales, and sales in December alone. 2K’s basketball sim beats out EA’s two biggest sports games in the US market, however it is important to note that Origin – EA’s digital retailer – is not taken into account in their calculations. With that in mind, here is the NPD’s list of the top 10 best-selling games of 2016 in the US:
1: Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Activision Blizzard)
2: Battlefield 1 (Electronic Arts)
3: Tom Clancy’s The Division (Ubisoft)
4: NBA 2K17 (Take 2 Interactive)
5: Madden NFL 17 (Electronic Arts)
6: Grand Theft Auto V (Take 2 Interactive)
7: Overwatch (Activision Blizzard)
8: Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision Blizzard)
9: FIFA 17 (Electronic Arts)
10: Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix Inc)
Yep, that’s a top nine purely made up of shooters and sports games, with a highly anticipated JRPG sprinkled in by the sprinkle chef just for good measure.
It’s interesting that the much maligned and criticised Infinite warfare beat out more critically acclaimed titles like Battlefield and Overwatch. GTA 5 also deserves an extra special mention as it was first released on PS3 and Xbox 360 more than 3 years ago, and the current generation more than 2, and yet it still makes 6th spot for 2016.
Globally, the highest-selling video game was actually Pokemon Sun/Moon on the 3DS, shifting nearly 10 Million copies according to VGChartz. Coming in at second? FIFA 17 on PS4.
Despite the relative lack of popularity in the US, FIFA is a true powerhouse in the world of gaming. Its Xbox version is ranked a healthy 10th, 6 places above NBA 2K17 on PS4. Yet with 11.5 million sales they can’t seem to afford to fix the career mode.
Sales of the PS4 and Xbox One consoles have declined roughly 30%, which is understandable given that most who want one would have one by now. However, Sony did widen it’s already sizeable gap over Microsoft. In fact, by the time the next generation of consoles arrive, Xbox will be fighting hard to play catch-up, no matter how great their 2017 might be.