The Top 10 Must-Play Titles of the Year
If 2018 was a big year for games, 2019 only built on that success. According to Forbes, “Last year the gaming market generated somewhere around $138.7 billion in revenue. The prediction… is that in 2019 it will increase by about 9.6% to generate 152.1 billion.” The gaming industry continues to grow year by year, with little sign of slowing down. What titles dominated the market this year? Let’s find out and take a look at the top games of 2019.
*All sales statistics come from NPD.
The Top 5 Titles of 2019
Gaming has always been an incredibly competitive market. However, some companies and franchises continue to dominate sales year after year, and 2019 is no different. The top-selling game of 2019 continues this trend. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare unsurprisingly takes the number 1 spot. The franchise continues to remain popular since its first installment in 2003. The sales figures of the latest Modern Warfare ensure its unshakeable place in the market for the foreseeable future.
Coming in the number 2 spot is NBA 2K20, the latest installment in the NBA 2K series. This basketball sim series has been popular since its first release 20 years ago. Even though the series sees an annual release, that doesn’t stop gamers and basketball fans alike from turning out each time a new edition hits shelves.
Sports sims continue to dominate. The number 3 spot going to Madden NFL 20, the latest entry into the Madden NFL series. This series is over 30 years old now (its first release being in June of ’88), and football fans and gamers alike continue to turn out in droves to pick up the latest installments.
The number 4 spot is taken by another first-person shooter, Borderlands 3. The 7-year wait between titles did little to deter fans of the series; instead, the anticipation has propelled it into the top 5 sellers of the year.
Rounding out the top 5 is the latest entry in the ever-popular fighting series, Mortal Kombat 11. For a time, this multiplayer brawler held the title of the best-selling game of 2019, and by year’s end has only fallen 4 spots—a testament to its dedicated fanbase and continued popularity.
The Next 5: Other Top Sellers of the Year
What titles round out the rest of the top games of 2019?
Publisher Electronic Arts have had a tough time handling the Star Wars franchise. But with development being handled by a different studio entirely, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order seems to be a return to form for the series. This third-person action-adventure game set in the Star Wars universe has received favorable reviews and the sales numbers to back those up—placing it at the number 6 spot for 2019.
First-person shooters seem to be eternally popular, and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint proves this rule. While the game received mixed reviews upon its October launch, sales were far from middling. It lands in the number 7 spot for the year.
Is 15 years too long to wait between major installments of a series? Absolutely not, as evidenced by the sales of Kingdom Hearts III. Upon its release in January, the game topped bestseller charts worldwide. It even became the fastest-selling game in the franchise. Even now, nearly a year after release, it sits at the number 8 spot for 2019.
The Tom Clancy series may not hold quite the same place in gaming culture as Call of Duty, but that isn’t slowing the series popularity. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 has managed to secure the number 9 spot for itself, despite relatively sluggish sales. Surprisingly, it’s received better reviews than its cousin who sits at number 7 on this list.
Last year, Nintendo dominated sales—even though some of its games were released a year earlier, in 2017. This year, their only entry on this list is the long-awaited latest console entry in the Pokémon franchise, Pokémon Sword. As with most releases in the series, there are two versions—Sword and Shield—but it looks as if Sword is the version that will secure the number 10 spot for the year.
Console Sales and The New Decade
While Nintendo may not be dominating the bestseller list like they were in 2018, the Nintendo Switch “was the best-selling hardware platform in the U.S. during the first half of the year; and it’s the only platform that’s experiencing year-on-year growth” according to NDP. With the release of the latest Pokémon titles and less expensive Nintendo Switch Lite, many forecasts see Switch sales continue to grow as we enter the new year.
However, this time next year will be completely different for console sales. Both Sony and Microsoft are expecting to launch their PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles sometime in Q4 of 2020. With these new consoles are sure to come exclusive games, new online features, and obvious hardware upgrades.
In the more immediate future, early 2020 boasts some hotly anticipated software releases, including Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nioh 2, Doom Eternal, and Cyberpunk 2077.
Additionally, 2019 was a big year for Virtual Reality (VR). According to Forbes, VR has seen a massive shift, and it’s become “we have a truly mobile platform that is good enough to facilitate compelling user experiences.”
Who knows where next year and next decade will take the VR experience?
Game On
Those were the top games of 2019, and 2020 looks like it will see the industry continue to grow. Make sure your customers have all the accessories they need to make the most of their gaming sessions, so visit Petra for all of your gaming accessory needs!