While financial folks continue to claim that the Call of Duty franchise is in freefall, the latest game in the series still managed to top the sales charts in December. Call of Duty: Black Ops III, which also topped the list in November, beat out several other strong contenders for the public’s Christmas dollars including Star Wars: Battlefront (#2) and Fallout 4 (#3). There weren’t too many new releases available in December, but one, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (#7), managed to crack the top ten.
However, the the biggest surprise in the NPD Group’s December report might be that Minecraft: Story Mode landed at #9… even though the game disc available in stores only contains the first episode. Interestingly, it placed just behind the original Minecraft, which was firmly locked in at #8.
Even with a dearth of new releases, December 2015 was a good one from a financial perspective, which NPD analyst Liam Callahan shared with GamesIndustry.biz: “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.”
The full top ten list for December 2015 can be found after the break.
Bestselling Games in December 2015
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
2. Star Wars: Battlefront (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
3. Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
2. Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3)
5. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3)
6. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
7. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
8. Minecraft (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
9. Minecraft: Story Mode (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
10. FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3)
