Top 10 Best Selling Games of December & All of 2015 (USA)

What were the Top 10 best selling games in December 2015 & all of 2015 in the United States?

The newest NPD numbers are in, and so are the top lists of the highest selling game systems and games for last month and the entire year in America.

Here is the full Top 10 of December 2015:

    1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision Blizzard | Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)**
    2. Star Wars: Battlefront (Electronic Arts | Xbox One, PS4, PC)**
    3. Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks | PS4, Xbox One, PC)**
    4. Madden NFL 16 (Electronic Arts | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)**
    5. NBA 2K16 (Take-Two | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
    6. Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)**
    7. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft | Xbox One, PS4, PC)
    8. Minecraft (Microsoft | 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
    9. Minecraft: Story Mode: A Telltale Game Series (TellTale | 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
    10. FIFA 16 (Electronic Arts | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)**

Here is the full Top 10 throughout 2015:

    1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision Blizzard | Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)**
    2. Madden NFL 16 (Electronic Arts | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)**
    3. Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks | PS4, Xbox One, PC)**
    4. Star Wars: Battlefront (Electronic Arts | Xbox One, PS4, PC)**
    5. Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two | PS4, Xbox One) 360, PS3, PC)**
    6. NBA 2K16 (Take-Two | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
    7. Minecraft (Microsoft | 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4)
    8. FIFA 16 (Electronic Arts | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)**
    9. Mortal Kombat X (Warner Bros | PS4, Xbox One)
    10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision Blizzard | Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)**

** Includes: CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware. Physical retail copies only.

Another year with COD on #1. Here’s the Call of Duty: Black Ops III TV commercial…

System Sales in December 2015:

    1. PlayStation 4 — Confirmed 35.9 million sold total! The PS4 was also the best selling platform of the year.
    2. Xbox One — Estimated 23.4 million sold total.
    3. Nintendo Wii U
    4. Nintendo 3DS
    5. Xbox 360
    6. PlayStation 3
    7. PlayStation Vita

Note: Only the first three spots are confirmed. The rest are estimates, no complete hard sales data was released for the month.

Check out the PlayStation 4 Holiday 2015 Commercial feat. Star Wars Battlefront…

Analysis of the game and hardware sales numbers:

Although NPD doesn’t by far track all digital sales, retail still gives a good impression of last month’s best selling video games.

To quote NPD industry analyst Liam Callahan…

About video games he said:

“December 2015 was the best month on record for PS4 and Xbox One, and the second-best for the Wii U in terms of new physical software unit sales. This also meant that it was the best month of total eighth generation new physical software sales.

New video games sold at U.S. retailers earned $13.1 billion for the second year in a row.”

About hardware he said:

“For December 2015, the 6% decrease in hardware sales versus December 2014 was driven by a 71% drop in [Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii] hardware. As well as the 32% decrease in portable hardware.

After 26 months of sales, the combined cumulative sales of Xbox One and PS4 exceeds the 26 month total of the PS3 and Xbox 360 by 47%. The lead from the prior generation has expanded due to the strong PS4 and Xbox One 2015 holiday, going from 38% by the end of October, growing to 47% by the end of November, and maintaining 47% higher sales by the end of December.”

Credits: NeoGAF

While it’s no surprise PlayStation 4 has stayed the new console king all year, ironically Xbox One was the king just in December last year with its bundles for Christmas shoppers.

I do hope that in the new year the Top 10 will be different, because it’s literally been the same game series for many years now. Fingers crossed for some new franchise introductions this year. Let the good times roll in 2016. 😀

Are the Top 10 games of 2015 what you expected?