Have you ever heard of a franchise called Call of Duty? It’s a little indie series, might not have ever heard of it. Just kidding, it’s statistically impossible (don’t quote me on that) for you to not have heard of it as it made up 7 of the top 10 best selling games of the 2010s.
The NPD has released the list for best selling games of the last decade and it’s not incredibly shocking nor interesting. Alongside Minecraft and Rockstar’s two juggernauts, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, CoD dominated the charts last decade. Every title in the incredibly popular Activision shooter franchise that released from 2010 – 2019 landed somewhere in the top 20.
It’s also pretty astonishing to note that Modern Warfare managed to work its way up to the 12th best selling game of the decade despite only having two months on the market. You can view the full list below.
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III
- Call Of Duty: Ghosts
- Red Dead Redemption II
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
- Minecraft
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Mario Kart 8
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Battlefield 1
- Battlefield 4
- Destiny
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Star Wars Battlefront (2015)
It’s also worth noting Nintendo managed to crack the top 20 with two titles. Mario Kart 8 and Breath of the Wild released on Wii U and Nintendo Switch, making it the only two platform exclusives on this list. While it’s hard to know what the split between the two consoles is, it’s likely Nintendo Switch did a lot of the heavy lifting for both games, especially The Legend of Zelda.
Two of the three games Rockstar released last generation also cracked the list. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the only non-remaster from them last gen and shows just how much the Rockstar brand can help push units. Grand Theft Auto V has pushed over 100 million units to consumers, giving the developer the opportunity to really let their western epic and future titles cook without financial pressure.
It’s also incredibly interesting to see Battlefield 4 make the list. While definitely a great game, it’s not a game that has come up in many conversations when talking about the best games of the decade. The reasoning for it could be that it was a launch title for both PS4 and Xbox One, making it a huge non-CoD multiplayer game that had long legs during the first year drought.
There was also some extreme interest as it was the first time the large-scale 64-player combat the series was known for came to consoles.
