NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella has revealed that Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft made the highest number of appearances in the company’s U.S. top 20 best-selling video game charts this decade.
To be more precise, GTA V made 74 appearances and Minecraft made 73. However, it is Rockstar’s title that took everyone by surprise, and for good reason.
Reviewing The NPD Group’s US top 20 best-selling Video Games by month for the 2010’s and this fact still blows my mind… GTAV has charted in 74 of the 75 months since its debut in Sep ’13, including hitting #19 in Nov ’19. Absolutely unprecedented.
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) December 26, 2019
The top five games with the longest legs this decade are as follows:
- GTA V (74 appearances)
- Minecraft (73 appearances)
- Mario Kart 8 (37 appearances)
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (34 appearances)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (30 appearances)
Piscatella noted that he will provide another update once December is over. Data for the month will be revealed by January 16th, and we’ll find out how much of an impact Christmas sales had this year. That said, you can safely assume that GTA V will retain its crown.
One interesting development in December pertains to CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. Analysts predict that Netflix’s The Witcher will have a significant impact on the game’s sales. It certainly helps that The Witcher III is now available on the Nintendo Switch and was also recently added to the Xbox Game Pass on top of having its price slashed across all platforms.
We’ll update our readers when full results are announced.
[Source: Mat Piscatella (Twitter)]
