Summary
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6was the best-selling game of 2024, according to a new report from Circana. While many in the gaming sphere won’t be too shocked to hear thatCall of Duty: Black Ops 6was the top seller last year, some titles appearing in the top 20 are a tad more surprising.
2024 saw the release of many blockbuster titles, fromElden Ring: Shadow of the ErdtreeandHelldivers 2toFinal Fantasy 7 RebirthandDragon’s Dogma 2. Some of thetop games of 2024shocked the community, with the indie poker-themed roguelike deck-building titleBalatronominated alongside massive releases likeBlack Myth: WukongandMetaphor: ReFantaziofor Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024. Gaming trends are always in flux, though some franchises seem to have more staying power than others, with a select few long-running series selling incredibly well last year.
According to data from Circana and analysis by Mat Piscatella that was shared withIGN,Call of Duty: Black Ops 6was the best-selling game of 2024, followed byEA Sports College Football 25andHelldivers 2. Five games in the top 10 were revealed to be sports titles, withNBA 2K25,Madden NFL 25,EA Sports FC 25, andEA Sports MVP Bundleall selling incredibly well in 2024. Likely due to therelease of theShadow of the Erdtreeexpansionin June 2024,Elden Ringremained in the top 10 best-selling titles of the year.Dragon Ball: Sparking ZeroandTekken 8were the only fighting games to appear on the list, whileFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth,Hogwarts Legacy, andDragon’s Dogma 2were the major RPGs represented in the data. While no Nintendo titles appear on the list, this is potentially due to the fact that Nintendo does not share its digital sales data with Circana.
Top 20 Best-Selling Games in the U.S. for 2024
While overall content spending increased by two percent to $50.6 billion in the U.S. during 2024, hardware spending dropped a whopping 25 percent when compared to 2023, coming in at $4.9 billion. ThePlayStation 5 was the best-selling consoleof 2024, followed by the Nintendo Switch in unit sales and Xbox Series X/S in dollar sales. Notably, consumers in the U.S. spent less on games overall, with spending down 1.1 percent to $58.7 billion.
Some major releases are slated for 2025, withMonster Hunter Wilds,Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, andAvowedscheduled to release during the first few months of the year. Though a concrete release date for the title has not been announced,Grand Theft Auto 6is still shooting for 2025, with recent rumors indicating that the open-world triple-A title could cost as much as $100 at launch.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
WHERE TO PLAY
Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within. This is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops.The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.In a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, players will test their skills across 16 new maps at launch, including 12 core 6v6 maps and 4 Strike maps that can be played 2v2 or 6v6.Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies.
