The best-selling video games of 2019 are in! We looked at sales rank from Amazon ($AMZN) and GameStop ($GME) to uncover video games that held top sales consistently throughout the year. As you'll see, the big winners of 2019 were the Switch and anything Nintendo ($TYO:7974).
Next year, Sony ($SNE) and Microsoft ($MSFT) both have new consoles coming out, at which team we may see titles for those new machines dominate 2020. But for 2019, Nintendo ruled.
Both lists have been edited to remove duplicate listings, gift cards, accessories, and other non-game items. The Amazon list, in particular, had a cutoff: a minimum of 14 days on the best-sellers list. Some games were number 1 for a day or two, but then fell off, and that doesn't accurately represent what sold the best year-round.
Amazon
|
Name |
Category Rank (Avg) |
Days on Best-Sellers List |
|---|---|---|
|
Luigi's Mansion 3 (Nintendo Switch) |
6.8 |
75 |
|
Pokemon Shield (Nintendo Switch) |
12 |
71 |
|
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo Switch) |
13.2 |
266 |
|
Pokemon Sword (Nintendo Switch) |
13.9 |
78 |
|
The Last of Us Part II Special Edition (PlayStation 4) |
21.5 |
16 |
|
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Nintendo Switch) |
22.1 |
188 |
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PlayStation 4) |
22.6 |
143 |
|
Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo Switch) |
23.2 |
96 |
|
NBA 2K20 (Microsoft Xbox One) |
25 | 16 |
|
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo Switch) |
27.2 | 260 |
|
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild |
27.5 | 238 |
|
Just Dance 2020 (Nintendo Switch) |
28.6 | 48 |
| Marvel's Spider-Man (PlayStation 4) | 31.4 | 167 |
| Kingdom Hearts 3 Deluxe Edition (PlayStation 4) | 32.1 | 20 |
| Madden NFL 20 (PlayStation 4) | 34.9 | 151 |
| NBA 2K20 (PlayStation 4) | 35.3 | 129 |
| Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo Switch) | 35.8 | 235 |
| Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PlayStation 4) | 36.3 | 94 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Microsoft Xbox One) | 36.6 | 130 |
| Death Stranding (PlayStation 4) | 38 | 73 |
| New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Nintendo Switch) | 38.2 | 261 |
| Final Fantasy VII Remake Deluxe Edition (PlayStation 4) | 38.4 | 51 |
| Madden NFL 20 (Microsoft Xbox One) | 39.7 | 138 |
You can see that although the new releases (Pokemon and Luigi's Mansion) dominated the charts having only been available for a few weeks, a massive amount of people bought a Switch for the first time this year and had to get older classics. The staying power of Zelda, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and others really left an impression on the Amazon best-sellers all year long.
Outside of the Switch being everywhere, PlayStation 4 versions of games sold way better than Xbox One copies. Also, quite a few games that haven't been released yet made it onto the list through the sheer power of pre-orders alone.
GameStop
|
Name |
Category Rank (Avg) |
Platform |
|---|---|---|
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare C.O.D.E Edition |
34.2 |
Sony PlayStation 4 |
|
Pokemon Sword and Shield Double Pack |
43.9 |
Nintendo Switch |
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare PC |
91.2 |
PC |
|
Final Fantasy VII Remake Deluxe Edition |
93.5 |
Sony PlayStation 4 |
|
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Deluxe Edition |
123 |
Sony PlayStation 4 |
|
Super Mario Maker 2 |
130.1 |
Nintendo Switch |
|
The Last of Us Part II |
131 |
Sony PlayStation 4 |
|
Ring Fit Adventure |
133.9 |
Nintendo Switch |
|
Super Smash Bros. Melee |
134.6 |
Nintendo Switch |
|
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |
139.8 |
Nintendo Switch |
|
Gears 5 Ultimate Edition |
149.7 |
Microsoft Xbox One |
The GameStop in-store exclusive bundles made this list over the regular counterpart, which is telling, because GameStop really relies on toys and merch and clothing, not really games anymore, to make its money. Most of the best-selling items were dolls or action figures, and the occasional console bundle. Also, the 18-year old Melee outsold 1-year old Ultimate, if you wanted to know what was the more popular physical disc version of Super Smash Bros. was to people.
The best-sellers lists are based on sales-rank data reported by both companies every day throughout 2019. In this case, we looked just at the "Video Games" category, averaged each product's sales rank for the year, and then weighted based on the number of days each product remained a best-seller.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.