Activision Blizzard's behemoth Call of Duty franchise dominated the NPD's charts throughout the 2010s.
Call of Duty is a juggernaut of a franchise. Every year, each new game manages to be the best-selling game of its respective year. Occasionally a game comes along that challenges it's domination, but even then, Call of Duty manages to come in right behind it. Even then, it's amazing just how many Call of Duty titles sneaked onto the top ten best-selling games of the decade.
Of the ten titles, seven of them are from the Call of Duty franchise. Of the other three, two come from Rockstar Games and the third is Minecraft. Though Grand Theft Auto V claimed the top spot, it can't diminish the fact that Activision Blizzard managed to capture seven spots with just one franchise:
- 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
Missing from the list are Advanced Warfare, Infinite Warfare, and the recently released Modern Warfare. Both Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare were highly controversial when they launched. Meanwhile, Modern Warfare has only been on the market for three months.
Whether Call of Duty can continue its dominance into the 2020s remains to be seen. Expect an announcement regarding Call of Duty 2020 to come sometime this spring.