Elden Ring Is Now The US's Best-Selling Game Of The Last Year, Topping Even CoD: Vanguard

From Software's Elden Ring has surpassed Call of Duty: Vanguard and is now the best-selling premium game in the US for the trailing 12-month period ending April 2022.

The NPD Group made the announcement on Friday as part of its sales report for April. Elden Ring continues to be the best-selling game of 2022; it has sold more than 13.4 million copies worldwide as of March 31, publisher Bandai Namco announced during its own earnings briefing this week. The NPD does not reveal specific sales numbers, but the game has surely grown bigger since Bandai's numbers don't count April.

As for Vanguard, Activision has been open about how the game failed to sell as well as it hoped, though it has not disclosed a sales figure for the title. The publisher said it failed to execute with the game, which was developed by Sledgehammer, and that the WWII setting did not resonate with everyone. Despite all that, Vanguard was the best-selling game in the US for 2021, with Black Ops Cold War finishing second.

April 2022's best-selling game in the US was Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which has the highest launch-month dollar sales for any Lego title in the history of the series. It was the No. 1 best-seller across Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. For Nintendo specifically, it was a notable launch, as The Skywalker Saga is the first game not made by Nintendo to rank No. 1 on a Nintendo platform for a given month since March 2021 (Monster Hunter: Rise).

Looking ahead, Activision will launch Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and a new Warzone experience later this year, the development of which is being led by Infinity Ward.

Also of note, Battlefield 2042 is the 5th best-selling game in the US over the past year, despite the game not selling as well as EA hoped. Going forward, EA has said it stands behind DICE as a developer and that the Battlefield series remains important to EA.

Top 10 Games In The US (12 Months Ending April '22)

1. Elden Ring
2. Call of Duty: Vanguard
3. Madden NFL 22
4. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl*
5. Battlefield 2042
6. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
7. Far Cry 6
8. FIFA 22
9. Resident Evil Village
10. Pokemon Legends: Arceus*

*Digital sales not included