NPD 2020 Yearly

[Silent_Buddha]

NPD reveals the best-selling games of 2020 in the U.S. | VentureBeat

OK, posting this because of a couple of very interesting things, at least to me.

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War Activision Blizzard (Corp)
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Activision Blizzard (Corp)
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons* Nintendo
4. Madden NFL 21 Electronic Arts
5. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla Ubisoft
6. The Last of Us: Part II Sony (Corp)
7. Ghost of Tsushima Sony (Corp)
8. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe* Nintendo
9. Super Mario 3D All-Stars* Nintendo
10. Final Fantasy VII: Remake Square Enix Inc (Corp)
11. Marvel’s Avengers Square Enix Inc (Corp)
12. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Sony (Corp)
13. NBA 2K21* Take 2 Interactive (Corp)
14. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* Nintendo
15. FIFA 21 Electronic Arts
16. Mortal Kombat 11 Warner Bros. Interactive
17. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Bandai Namco Entertainment
18. MLB: The Show 20 Sony (Corp)
19. Cyberpunk 2077* Warner Bros. Interactive
20. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2

First the normal things. COD again takes the top spot. Nintendo again comes in after COD (highest physical retail dollar sales for Nintendo since Wii Fit Plus in 2010). Nintendo again is the most prolific game publisher. Yadda yadda yadda.

Now for the interesting things.

Nothing from Rockstar in the charts for the first time since GTA V came out?

Sony did quite well last year with 3 single SKU titles in the top 20 for 2020. Kudos to them for this Nintendo-esque accomplishment. TLOU 2 is now the 3rd best selling (dollar sales, not unit sales) Sony title in NPD history

Cyberpunk 2077 has an asterisk. I wonder where it would have ended up if digital sales had been included considering that it was recently reported that Cyberpunk 2077 was estimated to sell over 10 million digital copies in Dec.

Regards,
SB

 

[Johnny Awesome]

IMO this chart is becoming more and more irrelevant. Nintendo is doing well, but over-represented given their smaller digital presence. Cyberpunk is proof of that. It's likely in the top 5 with digital sales included, but barely makes the list otherwise. It's also impossible to see how MS games are doing since they are included in GamePass now. Halo Infinite might not even chart this year, but might sell 5+ million GP subscriptions if it's good enough. IMO we're headed to a world where there are 50+ million GP subscribers and yet MS won't even show up on the NPD anymore.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Halo Infinite might not even chart this year, but might sell 5+ million GP subscriptions if it's good enough. IMO we're headed to a world where there are 50+ million GP subscribers and yet MS won't even show up on the NPD anymore.

Some kind of engagement metric is welcome.

 

[BRiT]

Some kind of engagement metric is welcome.

Pretty much what I expect them to use given the F2P MP side of it.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

IMO this chart is becoming more and more irrelevant. Nintendo is doing well, but over-represented given their smaller digital presence. Cyberpunk is proof of that. It's likely in the top 5 with digital sales included, but barely makes the list otherwise. It's also impossible to see how MS games are doing since they are included in GamePass now. Halo Infinite might not even chart this year, but might sell 5+ million GP subscriptions if it's good enough. IMO we're headed to a world where there are 50+ million GP subscribers and yet MS won't even show up on the NPD anymore.

Ummm, you noticed that only the titles with * don't include digital sales? That means Nintendo titles and Cyberpunk 2077 in that list. If anything that means Nintendo is under-represented.

Going by Phil Spencer's words, he isn't interested in getting into e-peen wagging contests. Other than broad overall numbers, I don't expect to see hard numbers from them ever again except for things like # of active monthly users of XB-Live, # of GamePass subscribers, etc.

That said, MS does share digital sales numbers with NPD.

December 2020 NPD: Nintendo dominates with half of the top 20 games | VentureBeat

December 2020 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Xbox games

• Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War Activision Blizzard (Corp)
• Cyberpunk 2077* Warner Bros. Interactive
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla Ubisoft
• Madden NFL 21 Electronic Arts
• NBA 2K21* Take 2 Interactive (Corp)
• Immortals: Fenyx Rising Ubisoft
• FIFA 21 Electronic Arts
• Watch Dogs: Legion Ubisoft
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Activision Blizzard (Corp)
• Forza Horizon 4 Microsoft (Corp)

Notice, no * on Forza Horizon 4. The main reason they aren't showing up on NPD for most of 2020 is that they didn't release much in 2020, and they didn't release anything in the very important Holiday 2020 quarter. Game Pass may potentially reduce sales, however, everything MS has said so far is that since putting MS titles day and date on Game Pass, those titles have exceeded their sales expectations. In other words, the titles sold more than MS expected they would after they were put on Game Pass. This makes sense if you think of it as a "rental" service. Then after they cancel their sub, they may decided they still want to play X title.

Regardless, from MS' perspective, it doesn't matter where they rank in terms of software sales. What matters to them is their revenue stream offset by their operating costs. They don't exist to contribute to fanboy console wars, but exist to make a profit.

Regards,
SB

 

[Johnny Awesome]

You probably should have explained the * in the original post.

Doesn't change my point that MS 1st party is going to be under represented regardless of their internal projections.

Also, not sure where your last comment was directed as it's not a fanboy thing to point out the obvious fact that MS isn't going to show up on charts when they are putting stuff up on GP day one.