The list of the best-selling games of 2022 has just been published. Modern Warfare 2 once again rules and even overtook the Game of the Year. Let's see what games are on the list.
The NPD Group, an American market research institute, annually publishes a list of the best-selling games. This list is based on all physical and digital sales in dollars, so it applies primarily to the US market. Nevertheless, every year it gives a good indication of what the best-selling games worldwide were last year.
The list of the best-selling games in 2022 has a few surprises in store... So let's take a look at the top 10 best-selling games on the US market.
Top 10 Best Selling Games 2022: Modern Warfare 2 Crushes Elden Ring
Before we just show you a simple table, a few words about it: For all titles on the list (except Nintendo's), digital and physical sales were counted in dollars. Nintendo doesn't release the numbers on their digital sales, so only physical sales were counted. That's why the two Nintendo games should actually be slightly higher on the list.
It should also be noted that Madden NFL 23 and MLB: The Show 22 are, of course, particularly popular in the US and would probably not even appear in the top 10 in a global ranking.
So enough chatter, here's the list of the top 10 best-selling games in 2022, with our commentary just below:
| Rank | Title | Publisher |
| 1 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | Activision Blizzard |
| 2 | Elden Ring | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| 3 | Madden NFL 23 | EA |
| 4 | God of War: Ragnarök | Sony |
| 5 | LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga | Warner Bros. Interactive |
| 6 | Pokémon Scarlet and Violet | Nintendo |
| 7 | FIFA 23 | EA |
| 8 | Pokémon Legends: Arceus | Nintendo |
| 9 | Horizon II: Forbidden West | Sony |
| 10 | MLB: The Show 22 | Sony, MLB Advanced Media |
Yep, Modern Warfare 2 is at number 1! Actually, this wouldn't be a big surprise, Call of Duty has been the best-selling game of the year for years now, but for 2022 it actually is kinda surprising. After all, we got an incredibly outstanding game with Elden Ring, which also became game of the year and was already released in February.
Elden Ring had a whole ten months to make sales in 2022. Modern Warfare 2 only came out at the end of October, and still managed to outsell all the other games on the list in just two months – that's quite impressive.
If you only tale a look at Europe, the list looks a bit different, of course. Here, FIFA 23 dominates ahead of Modern Warfare 2 and Elden Ring, and instead of Madden and MLB, GTA 5 and Gran Turismo 7 appear in the top 10. However, since the dollar market is incredibly huge and influential, we can probably expect Modern Warfare 2 to be at number 1 worldwide.
Would you have guessed all the games on this list? We actually expected that Call of Duty wouldn't make it to first place in 2022 thanks to Elden Ring...
For those who still haven't played Elden Ring: