Everyone else can throw in the towel for 2014, because Activision won.
The video game publisher has not only the #1 bestselling console game of 2014, it has the #2 bestseller, too. After spending just over one month on store shelves, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is already the biggest console game of the year. It hit that mark in cumulative sales as well as individually for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
The #2 spot belongs (unsurprisingly) to Destiny, which also claimed the honor of being the #1 top-selling new IP of 2014. Additionally, Activision's Skylanders: Trap Team cemented Skylanders as the #1 kids franchise of the year. Skylanders owes that top spot to not only sales of its four video game titles — two of which are available for new-generation consoles — but to the many toy figurines that are the linchpin of Skylanders gameplay.
These figures are based on sales up through the end of November 2014, and come from metrics measurer NPD Group.
Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg promised that his company has "even more great new content in store for 2015," which basically means that Activision's three franchises — its only three franchises — are fully committed to annual releases for the foreseeable future.
It's hard to believe that a company as big and successful as Activision has just three IPs to its credit, but this scaling-back strategy is obviously working. More development and marketing dollars are able to be poured into these three games than could be committed to a dozen or more titles, so it makes sense.
The one question mark is whether or not Bungie can keep up with Activision's yearly publishing schedule. It's unknown if annual Destiny titles are part of Bungie's contractual obligations with Activision, but it seems probable. Yet Bungie has never produced games on a yearly basis before. It's a massive undertaking, requiring multiple teams under one roof working on multiple titles simultaneously. And it's very hard to do and do well (looking at you, Ubisoft).
