NPD: The 20 best-selling games of 2019 in the U.S.

it's time to run down the 20 best-selling games of 2019 in the United States, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group.

[Kribwalker]

Nintendo killing it like no one else can. 5 exclusives in the top 20 is crazy, especially since 2 of them had released at least the year before

[masterfox]

kinda sad imo when you only see Pokemons , Marios in the whole 10 game list and no new IP's, while others have great variation. ;)

[porkChop]

How is that sad? If they're selling that well it's obviously because that's what gamers want.

[King_Noctis]

But you are ok with the year NBA, Madden, and COD in the top 5?

The mainline Pokemon and Mario games are not yearly franchises. However, I’m not surprised you cherry-picked those games.

[bouzebbal]

Fun fact, everyone was saying one of wii u problems was that people are tired of the exact same franchises again and again.. Next console comes and still same franchises.. Or worse.. Lots of them are wiiu ports.

[Shiken]

Nintendo does have a great variation and they also sell very well. Don't be mad at Nintendo for having IPs with legs. Makes you look like a child. 🙂

[Imalwaysright]

I think that is sad that more people buy the PS4 and the X1 to play multiplatform games, mainly online focused ones, than their respective exclusives. No wonder that MTs are so prevelant in this industry.

[CDbiggen]

Smash Bros deserves that spot. Best game to play with people in the same room.

[yomfweeee]

Nintendo lives and dies by their classic characters. I got a Switch last March and the only games we got so far were Mario Odyssey, both Zelda games, Rabbids, Pokémon Evee, Pokémon Shield, Luigis Mansion and Starlink (which I got for free with Amazon promo).

Look at the third party games on top 20 and how many of them aren't on Switch.

It is the perfect secondary console because of their first party. But with the lack of big name third party it can't be your only console.

But if that works for them, so be it.

[Gemmol]

9 out of the 20 on the switch

5 first party and 4 third party

[yomfweeee]

That's right gemmol, 14 multiplat games on there, only 4 of which are on Switch (if you're right about 4).

[NecrumOddBoy]

I am proud to see Days Gone in the top 20. It's a great game that took some unfair licks from the media this year.

[Thundercat77]

Totally proud too. Against all media hate, the game did beyond awesome and turned out to be both a commercial and critically acclaimed hit.

[hangdang]

It wasn't a critically acclaimed game, though, It's sitting at 71 on Metacritic.

[The Wood]

Nintendo are still on the up and smashed it with quality and varied exclusives. Well done to day's gone and mlb. I think the tables will turn for Sony next year with the quality lined up. Microsoft. . . .not sure what they've got coming apart from infinite but their unit sales or enthusiasm must be low if they couldn't even get their marquee title to feature last year. Guess we'll put that down to game pass right.?

[Kribwalker]

Could be, but Gears 4 was never on gamepass and it didn’t make the top list of 2016 https://venturebeat.com/201...

Gears 4 hit 3rd on the NPD on it’s launch month, while Gears 5 hit 7th, https://www.windowscentral....
and that didn’t include sales on steam, which were big at launch https://www.windowscentral....

And it appears to have sold better then gears 4 had, according to MS https://www.pcgamesn.com/ge...

[Thundercat77]

I am glad for Nintendo but this is just 1 year. Sony topped Nintendo the whole decade and The Last of Us was named game of the decade over Zelda.

Dominating a whole decade is bigger than just dominating a year which in turn is the last life cycle year of the PS4.

[Majin-vegeta]

They need to get rid of the UE4 and make their own or use the decimal engine

[stupidusername]

I’ve been playing it this last week but I’m about to give up 5 hours in. Does it get better?
The transitions between cutscenes and gameplay feel outdated, the AI is terribly basic and the audio is incredibly bad but I’m wondering if it’s because of a bug. And worst of all is the amount of ‘clear out this place’ type of missions.
But I’ve spent money on it and I still want to give it a chance.

[Abnor_Mal]

Days Gone made it into the top 20, number 19 for all games, number 8 on the PlayStation list. Really happy to see that gamers weren't taken in by the bashing the media gave this game. I guess it was the new kid on the block and had to be jumped in if it wanted to be considered cool and run with the big boys.

No Gears5 on the XBox One list, just multiplatforms.

Where are the VR games list?

[ApocalypseShadow]

It'll be some time before you see an NPD VR list. Not like when VR showed up on the UK list like with Blood and Truth.

USA is all about dude bro shooters and sports with Mario mixed in for flavor. Mostly the same annual franchises over and over.

But you're right. How about that Gears. Must have not sold that much because of a service. A lot of people "played" it though.

[Abnor_Mal]

Well with Half Life Axyl bringing VR into the mainstream lol, we should start seeing VR games on NPD list by next generation as far as the PSVR2. Hopefully being better that the current model, with better controllers and resolution. I'm seeing so many new VR games being ported to PSVR that it seems VR Publishers are finally starting to take notice.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Yeah. Half Life should shoot to the top of the list for VR when it launches. Too bad there is no retail version. It would definitely hit NPD.

I hope so about next gen getting more exposure. It's sometimes hard to go back to flat when I've done that for more than 40 years. It takes old school beat em ups and side scrolling action games to bring me back out of VR.

[The 10th Rider]

Honestly, I wasn't too optimistic for Days Gone towards the end of last year, but as it got closer to release they did a really good job polishing things up. The post-launch support has been awesome too. It's a huge win for Sony Bend.

[Saijahn]

Not sure if they account for game pass in their sales figures.

[AK91]

So dissatisfied at the top 5, yes Modern Warfare has a great SP but their MP leaves a lot to be desired.

[MasterCornholio]

I'm surprised that Days Gone made it at #19 on the list. However Nintendo is killing it with their exclusives. Unfortunately Gears 5 isn't on the list.

[GaboonViper]

Days Gone is very underrated and glad it made the list, and well done Ninty, so happy Nintendo are doing superb.

[Abnor_Mal]

Woe just realised Star Wars The Fallen Order is on the list of top 20, but the The Outer Worlds didn't make the cut.

They both came out close to the end of the year, TOW in October 2019 and SWTFO November 2019. Even with most of the sales coming from the PS4, I would have thought the game would have made the list. Seems Gamepass took many of the sales away from this game on either XBox or PC or both. PS4 wasn't enough to get it on the list, but then how did The Fallen Order?

[Edgelordsupreme]

Wow a Star Wars game beat The Outer Worlds? That's shocking, Star Wars has a tiny fan base and this whole generation has been overflowing with quality star wars games. Crazy, who would have thought a small niche property like STAR WARS would beat an established franchise like The Outer Worlds. You would have to have some kind of galaxy brain to call that one, what a shocking turn of events.

[neutralgamer1992]

That's not the point. One game is available on a series and one is available at full price

[leoms]

Damn ''PlayStation 4 was the best-selling hardware of the decade'' I guess no surprises there

[Gemmol]

Yep Wii had majority of it sales before 2010, so did ps3 and 360.....::

Ps4 only had 3ds Wii U Vita and Xbox One to compete with

Switch didn’t drop until 2017 so not enough years to challenge ps4

Sony will win 2020 to 2030 also because ps5 will start 2020 and end by 2027, while switch probably end 2024 so all the 50 million sales switch earn from 2017 to 2019 won’t be added

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

14.5 billion? But...

"In 2019, the U.S. will overtake China as the world’s largest gaming market by revenues. Overall, the U.S. games market will generate $36.9 billion this year"

https://newzoo.com/insights...

[Saijahn]

Surprised at anthem

[LemyAtom]

Can't believe NBA2K20 is 2nd. That broken mess; all it does is reinforce to devs that people will buy broken shit.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

So basically exclusives only really sale if you’re on a Nintendo console. With all the Sony exclusives they released only Days gone made it to the top 20? Seems like more people like to shout about how many exclusives their console of choice has rather than actually buy them. Like always 3rd party games are where it’s at. Hey don’t be mad at me for stating facts lol.

[Abnor_Mal]

You're right, I'm surprised that only Days Gone made the list, which is surprising with how the game reviewed. I would think that Death Stranding would have made the cut also as many were championing the game very early on. Concrete Genie and MediEvil were never going to make an NPD list, very niche title and a remake of a PS1 game that stayed too close to the original for many.

[Gemmol]

I tell people all the time but no one wants to believe

This just show u the Sony crowd online are just like Pokémon hate crowd online they seem like a big group online but they small only a small amount want Sony exclusives

This why I said if third party got together and made their own console the only company that would survive is nintendo

[Silly gameAr]

No one probably wants to believe because it's not true.

[william_cade]

Not cool, but not surprised. The masses have shit taste collectively, just listen to some music on the radio or go to the cinema for evidence of this.