2015 proved to be another great year for gaming with titles, such as Fallout 4, Star Wars Battlefront and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, making their much awaited debut and have been well-received by fans and critics alike.
But it appears that the top spot in last year's list of best-selling games is still occupied by Activision's Call of Duty franchise.
NPD, the research group responsible for tracking the game industry's retail performance, revealed that the game's latest installment, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, was the number one selling video game title across different gaming platforms in 2015.
Black Ops III's sales did not come as a surprise to many observers as the franchise has pretty much dominated the video game industry in North America for the past seven years. In 2014, the top spot was held by Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Activision's Call of Duty games has now sold 250 million units, which proves just how massively popular the shooter series has become over the past few years.
Rob Kostich, president of Activision and general manager of the Call of Duty franchise, credits their success to the "amazing experiences" that their development teams have made, as well as the passion of members of the Call of Duty community to the franchise.
"We congratulate Treyarch on creating an incredibly engaging and an enormously fun game with Black Ops III and look forward to what's to come in 2016," Kostich said.
Following Call of Duty: Black Ops III on 2015's top selling games list are other staples in the industry, such as Madden NFL 16 at the second spot, NBA 2K16 at the sixth spot, Minecraft at the seventh spot and FIFA 16 at the ninth spot.
New entries Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront were able to catch up with other game titles in the list despite being released in November. Fallout 4 ended up occupying the third spot, while Battlefront secured the fourth spot.
As a testament to Call of Duty's enduring appeal to gamers, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was still able to make its way into last year's best sellers even though it was released back in 2014.
Here are the top 10 lists of best-selling games, both in December and the entire 2015:
Top Selling Video Games In The United States For December 2015
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
2. Star Wars Battlefront
3. Fallout 4
4. Madden NFL 16
5. NBA 2K16
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Rainbow Six Siege
8. Minecraft
9. Minecraft: Story Mode
10. FIFA 16
Top Selling Video Games In The United States For All Of 2015
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
2. Madden NFL 16
3. Fallout 4
4. Star Wars Battlefront
5. Grand Theft Auto V
6. NBA 2K16
7. Minecraft
8. Mortal Kombat X
9. FIFA 16
10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
One game title noticeably absent in last year's best-selling list is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is hailed as the best video game of 2015 by Yahoo Games.
NPD monitors only the retail of physical products and excludes figures from digital sales. With the increasing number of customers choosing to buy their game copies digitally, some observers believe NPD's figures will become less reliable in the future.
