Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 leads 2009's list of bestselling games @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on January 15, 2010

News: With New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports Resort nipping at its heels.

In addition to the December sales numbers, The NPD Group has also released game sales figures for the full year. Not surprisingly, the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 took the top spot with 5.8 million copies sold. It was practically the only spot in the top ten not owned by Nintendo, as six Wii games and a DS game (Pokemon Platinum) took seven of the remaining nine spots.

All told, the game industry (hardware, software, and accessories for consoles and handhelds) raked in $19.66 billion in sales for the year, which is down 8 percent from 2008's $21.4 billion tally. PC game sales accounted for $538 million in 2009, although the NPD Group did not that they do not track sales from digital distribution sites like Steam or Direct2Drive.

"When we started the last decade, video game industry sales, including PC games, totaled $7.98B in 2000," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. "In ten years, the industry has changed dramatically in many ways, but most importantly it was grown over those years by more than 250 percent at retail alone. Considering there are many new sources of revenue including subscriptions and digital distribution, industry growth is even more impressive."

The top ten bestselling games in 2009 include:

Console/Handheld Game Sales Numbers
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) - 5.8 million
2 (tie). Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 4.2 million
2 (tie). New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 4.2 million
4. Wii Fit (Wii) - 3.5 million
5. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 3.4 million
6. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 3.1 million
7. Wii Play (Wii) - 3.1 million
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) - 3 million
9. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360)
10. Pokemon Platinum (DS) - 2 million

As far as console sales go, the DS once again dominated the year with the Wii close behind and the Xbox 360 maintained a slim lead over the PS3:

Console Sales Numbers
1. Nintendo DS - 11,185,400
2. Wii - 9,594,000
3. Xbox 360 - 4,770,700
4. PlayStation 3 - 4,334,500
5. PSP - 2,495,900
6. PlayStation 2 - 1,799,900

Finally, The Sims and World of Warcraft once again owned the PC games list, just as they did in 2008:

PC Game Sales Numbers
1. The Sims 3
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
6. World of Warcraft
7. The Sims 3: World Adventures
8. Spore
9. Dragon Age: Origins
10. Empire: Total War