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Best-Selling Games For PS4, Xbox One, And Nintendo Switch Revealed (US)

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Hey now, you're a Rockstar.

The NPD Group has published an updated list of this console generation's best-selling games in the United States. With figures hovering around 110 million units shipped worldwide, it comes as no surprise that Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V leads the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One lists. But the rest of the results are both curious and predictable.

Mat Piscatella, a video games industry analyst for The NPD Group, posted a series of tweets revealing the lists. There are a couple of things to note. First, the list is "life to date through May 2019." Second, while the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One lists include digital and physical game sales, nine out of the 10 Nintendo Switch games--with the exception being Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle--don't include digital sales.

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On the predictable side, both Marvel's Spider-Man and God of War from 2018 take up the sixth and eighth spots on PlayStation 4, with Marvel's Spider-Man claiming the trophy of Sony's best-selling console exclusive this generation. Rockstar's magnum opus, Red Dead Redemption 2, finds itself in the second spot on PlayStation 4 and the fifth spot on the Xbox One. Though every game on the Nintendo Switch list is a console exclusive, Mario Kart 8 takes first place over both Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (second) and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (third).

What's curious to me is, while Call of Duty is a successful franchise, five different entries--2017's WWII (second), 2015's Black Ops 3 (third), 2018's Black Ops 4 (fourth), 2016's Infinite Warfare (sixth), and 2014's Advanced Warfare (ninth)--take up five spots on the Xbox One list. 2017's NBA 2K18 sits in the ninth spot on PlayStation 4. DICE's Star Wars Battlefront from 2015 occupies the eighth spot on Xbox One, and strangely, not a single console exclusive even lands on the list. Destiny 2 does come in at a solid tenth place on Xbox One though.

Check out the full lists below.

Nintendo Switch

  1. Mario Kart 8
  2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  4. Super Mario Odyssey
  5. Super Mario Party
  6. Splatoon 2
  7. Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu!
  8. Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee!
  9. Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
  10. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

PlayStation 4

  1. Grand Theft Auto V
  2. Red Dead Redemption 2
  3. Call of Duty: WWII
  4. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
  5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
  6. Marvel's Spider-Man
  7. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
  8. God of War (2018)
  9. NBA 2K18
  10. Battlefield 1

Xbox One

  1. Grand Theft Auto V
  2. Call of Duty: WWII
  3. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
  4. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
  5. Red Dead Redemption II
  6. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
  7. Battlefield 1
  8. Star Wars Battlefront (2015)
  9. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
  10. Destiny 2

jeribear

jeremy winslow

jeremy winslow (him/he/his) is a news writer with work featured in feminist frequency, paste magazine, polygon, and various magazines and newspapers. if he's not writing up the happenings, then he's probably reading the news, looking for the news, or getting pissed about the news. wherever there's news, jer's there. hit him on twitter: @_pbnjer.

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V

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ballaShotCaller

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The most surprising one is Super Mario Party. Can't believe it's so high up there.

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lorddaggeroff

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Edited By lorddaggeroff

Grand theft auto is like star citizen, it's every game wrapped in one game, it's call of duty, it's Forza horizon, it's mass effect character building, it's battlefield, it's mid night club, it's everything except Minecraft and doom and mortal Kombat and mario.

Wanna fly a jet in first person, wanna troll professionally, wanna snipe someone few hundred metres away, wanna have a turf war, wanna be most wanted (infact GTA invented battle royale in bounties, kill and have the entire player base hunt you down, the longer your on the map shouting your filthy troll mouth the more hungry players will be ) GTA 6 online will be monsterous

Gta is the original battle royale as to battlefield 3 is to multi player.

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ZmanBarzel

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Edited By ZmanBarzel

I'm a smidge surprised to see Mario Kart 8 -- not Smash Bros. -- on top for the Switch, but then remembered that it has been out longer and kart racing has more mainstream appeal than a fighting game.

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lionheartssj1

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Edited By lionheartssj1

I have to believe the RP community is carrying GTA V at this point.

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BDRTFM

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People call Xbox the Dude Bro Shooter Console yet the top 5 best selling games on both systems are identical in a slightly different order.

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KillzoneSnake

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Why people keep buying an old GTA game. Played this on PS3 and was nothing special. Call of Duty virus all over the place... what is wrong with people these days.

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deactivated-5d762a7e1423c

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@KillzoneSnake: I'm fairly confident people are not buying it for the game itself (rather average), but for the online mode. It is one of the most played games on Xbox, week after week, same as all the other games as a service types, like Fortnite, Minecraft, Apex, etc. I'll have to tune into a stream one of these days to find out what folks are actually doing online!

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ZmanBarzel

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@KillzoneSnake: Because people who hadn't already bought a PS4 or XB1 are doing so each month, and GTA V is a) cheap, and b) still a really nice demonstration of the power of your new console, even if (or especially) you played it on the previous generation.

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Creepshow2

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@zmanbarzel As far as a demonstration of the console's power its way down the list. Red Dead 2 on the other hand will show you what can be done. Assasin's Creed Origins and Oddysee both are impressive looking games too.

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OldDadGamer

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OldDadGamer  Moderator

See, it's lists like these that should remind us here, on a game site, what an echo chamber we're in.

People here, all the time, discuss/fight about/argue/taunt each other about/lament/whatever quality exclusives. We parse out Quantum Break and Ori and The Unfinished Swan and Journey. When Scalebound gets cancelled it's "All you have is Forza" and "No, what about Quantum Break?" We hear cheering/accusations of bias over Uncharted 4 getting a 10. We gasp at the idea of Horizon 2 cuz Horizon was awesome.

And then these lists come out and NONE of those games are on them and we are reminded that the VAST majority of gamers aren't us. They're people who really just want to chill and shoot each other.

And it isn't going to change. If you told the vast majority of gamers that MS bought Double Fine they'd be "Double who?" If you told the vast majority of gamers you were excited for Kojima's next thing, they'd think you were looking forward to a hip new sushi bar.

We're the distinct minority, those of us that really care. Always have been, always will be.

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BDRTFM

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Edited By BDRTFM

@olddadgamer: I remember when Bloodbourne came out and got a 10. It had over 2000 comments about how Xbox has no games and Sony is King yada yada yada. Sales came out a few months later and less than 0.5% of PS owners actually played the game. I was literally the only person on my friends list who owned the game. Same thing happens with Xbox exclusives. It's all about bragging rights but not all that many people actually play them other than the more exceptional, rare gem games like The Last of Us.

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OldDadGamer

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OldDadGamer  Moderator

@bdrtfm: Yessir. And bragging rights amongst a very, very small percentage of people who play games.

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deactivated-5d762a7e1423c

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Yikes, shooters everywhere! Oh well, to each their own. God of War deserves to be there....Spiderman just makes me sad.....thank god I don;t care about Trophy's when I play PS....again, to each their own. Top 10 lists are sexy, but I'm betting the next 10 is where you see all the exclusives....or maybe more shooters :)

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OldDadGamer

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@Daelusca: More shooters. There's a reason they churn them out. Same thing as people who wonder "Hey, why all the superhero movies?" Cuz money.

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Just1MoHr

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Yea, XB1 list is sad I must admit, but I still luv my xb1x. Damn not even Quantum Break, Sea of Thievery, State of Decay 2, or Ori is on there. What no Gears 4? No matter really, as long as we keep getting all the other great games for now, then we go broke when new gen comes out.

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Edited By SabreDJ

@just1mohr: I'll say it till I'm blue in the face. As an owner of both consoles--that does not care who is on top--I just want great games, pro consumer programs, and superior playing experiences.

I started this generation firmly in the PlayStation camp for obvious reasons, and now find myself playing my XB1X 85% of the time. When you have Game Pass, better performance of 3rd party games, and liking XB Live more than the PSN, I just fire up the PS4 Pro when I play the 2 or 3 exclusives I like each year and for some backlog.

The next generation is going to be a great competition and I'm here for it.

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supermariomelee

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If this is for June, then Spider-man and God of War make sense. As those had price drops to $20 during Sony's Days of Play sale.

As for Battlefield 1, that's just weird.

I like that the writer pointed out on Xbox One, that there were no console exclusive games. That's because most of the exclusive games are 1st party and MS has really dropped the ball on games this generation. To the point that they've even admitted it.

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ZmanBarzel

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@supermariomelee: Per the article, it's for the entire console generation, up through May 2019.

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Pitbulllova

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not battlefield 4?! The game is the best shooter of this gen IMO.

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quigonzel

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Bit of an overreaction by some to the list of Xbox One games when seventy percent of both lists include the same games. Seriously. It's not like they're polar opposites. Sure, they say it's a testament to how terrible the Xbox is but I would argue it's a testament to the state of the industry nowadays.

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SabreDJ

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@quigonzel: They call them Sony Ponies for a reason. :)

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deactivated-602ba4c72cdea

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That Xbox top 10 sold list has got to be the worst in the history of consoles.

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ThrillKillFan

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@boardsport311: Both the PS4 and XB1 lists share SEVEN games. So if you ask me BOTH lists are rather lackluster. For the record, those games ARE:

  1. Grand Theft Auto V
  2. Call of Duty: WWII
  3. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
  4. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
  5. Red Dead Redemption II
  6. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
  7. Battlefield 1
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pinkfloyd6789

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Edited By pinkfloyd6789

@ThrillKillFan:RDR 2 is not a lackluster game dude!

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ZmanBarzel

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@pinkfloyd6789: He called the lists lackluster, not any of the games.

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pinkfloyd6789

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Edited By pinkfloyd6789

@zmanbarzel: I got IT! says Reverend Swanson.

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JamesBR27

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As long as GTA V keeps selling like that GTA VI will never be released.

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Tidus1012

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Just seeing the most sold games for the Xbox one make me wanna vomit.

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