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The Best-Selling Video Games Of 2017

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Credit: Activision

The final count is in and the NPD's US video game sale numbers are final. 2017 was an incredibly good year for the video game industry, with sales across the industry up 11% over 2016. Consumers spent $14.6 billion on video games, hardware and accessories in the US in 2017.

In December sales were up 10% to $3.3 billion. $1.6 billion of that was on software, with Nintendo leading the pack, while Activision-Blizzard was the highest grossing publisher of the year. Consumers spent $6.7 billion on video game software in 2017.

Spending on hardware was up 27% in December to $1.3 billion. For the year, hardware sales were up 28%, largely driven by the Nintendo Switch. That console was the best-selling hardware of December, while the PS4 remained the top-selling console of the year.

Best-Selling Games Of December

Here are the top 20 best-selling video games of December. Note that the NPD group counts both physical and digital sales of each of these publishers except for Nintendo. Nintendo is not part of the firm's digital partnership, so only physical sales are counted.

  1. Call of Duty: WWII
  2. Star Wars: Battlefront II 2017^
  3. Super Mario Odyssey**
  4. NBA 2K18
  5. Mario Kart 8**
  6. Madden NFL 18
  7. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds^
  8. Assassin's Creed: Origins
  9. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild**
  10. Grand Theft Auto V
  11. FIFA 18^
  12. Destiny 2^
  13. Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2
  14. Splatoon 2**
  15. Need for Speed: Payback^
  16. Xenoblade Chronicles 2**
  17. Just Dance 2018
  18. The Sims 4^
  19. Pokemon: Ultra Sun**
  20. Pokemon: Ultra Moon**

Best-Selling Games Of 2017

Moving on to the best-selling games of the year, here's the top ten list:

  1. Call of Duty: WWII
  2. NBA 2K18
  3. Destiny 2^
  4. Madden NFL 18
  5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild**
  6. Grand Theft Auto V
  7. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
  8. Star Wars: Battlefront II 2017^
  9. Super Mario Odyssey**
  10. Mario Kart 8**

When the November numbers came out last month, I guessed that not much would change in terms of the final order of this list. I wasn't too far off, though there were some significant changes.

Here were the top-ten games one month ago:

  1. Call of Duty: WWII
  2. Destiny 2**
  3. NBA 2K18
  4. Madden NFL 18
  5. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
  6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
  7. Grand Theft Auto V
  8. For Honor
  9. Injustice 2
  10. Horizon Zero Dawn

There are a few changes in the order. NBA 2K18 overtook Destiny 2 for second place and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild slipped into the fifth-place slot, knocking Ghost Recon: Wildlands into seventh place.

Grand Theft Auto V gained one spot, finishing the year off at #6. That remains the most remarkable thing about 2017's best-selling games. GTA V is still somehow outselling most new games despite being over four years old.

It's the bottom of the list where things really change. For Honor, Injustice 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn are all kicked off the top-ten, replaced by Star Wars: Battlefront II, Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Kart 8.

Nintendo had a fantastic year, as this list proves, with three of the top ten titles releasing on the Switch. Activision still outsold Nintendo, with Call of Duty: WWII as the best-selling game of the year, far out-stripping sales of last year's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

All told, a very strong year for video games and video game sales.

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