Cyberpunk 2077 and Next-Gen Consoles Couldn’t Beat CoD and Switch in December Says NPD

The NPD Group has released their full North American sales data for December 2020, and the industry ended the year on a high note. Numbers were up year-on-year with players spending $7.7 billion on games, additional content, and hardware. That’s up 25 percent compared to December 2019. With supply of the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S severely constrained, the Nintendo Switch won December, coming out on top in terms of both dollars and units sold. Overall, the Switch had the second-best year of any console in history in 2020, trailing only the Wii in 2008.

On the software front, the big news was Cyberpunk 2077, which debuted at #2 on the charts (behind Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War) despite the months and years of hype. Now, NPD wasn’t able to take into account all digital sales for Cyberpunk 2077, perhaps those would change the game’s placing on the December list, but it does seem like Cyberpunk’s messy launch did affect its sales. The only other new game on the charts was Immortals Fenyx Rising at #9 – seems Ubisoft’s attempt to take on Zelda BOTW didn’t go as well as they likely hoped.

Here are December’s top 20 games according to NPD:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Cyberpunk 2077
3. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
4. Spider-Man Miles Morales
5. Madden NFL 21
6. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
8. NBA 2K21
9. Immortals Fenyx Rising
10. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
11. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
12. Just Dance 2021
13. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
14. FIFA 21
15. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
16. Super Mario Odyssey
17. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
18. Super Mario Party
19. Ring Fit Adventure
20. Mortal Kombat 11

And here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2020:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
4. Madden NFL 21
5. Assassin's Creed Valhalla
6. The Last of Us Part II
7. Ghost of Tsushima
8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
9. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
10. Final Fantasy VII Remake

There you go, an interesting capper to one of the most unique years in gaming history. Looking ahead, what do you think the top sellers of 2021 will be?