January 2021 NPD — Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War stays in the lead

A new year means new sales data to pour through. Thanks to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella, we’ve got details on video game sales for January 2021 in the United States. According to Piscatella’s thread, the Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console of January in units sold, while the PS5 was the best-seller in terms of dollar sales. The PS5 DualSense controller was the best-selling accessory of the month.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War the best-selling game of the month, with it now being the 20th best-selling game ever tracked by NPD. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla came in at number #2 and is also the second-fastest selling Assassin’s Creed of the series, with the biggest initial launch and most revenue of any game in the franchise.

Here are the December 2020 results:

• Total sales: $4.71 billion, up 42% year-over-year from $3.32 billion
• Video game hardware: $319 million, up 144% year-over-year from $131 million
• Video game content: $4.17 billion, up 36% year-over-year from $3.06 billion
• Video game accessories: $222 million, up 73% from $128 million

December 2020 NPD Here are the top 20 games sold in the U.S.

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

• *Digital sales not included

December 2020 NPD Here are the best-selling games of August 2020 by platform:

December 2020 NPD PlayStation platforms

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
3. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
4. Madden NFL 21
5. Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition
6. Demon’s Souls
7. Ghost of Tsushima
8. FIFA 21
9. NBA 2K21*
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

December 2020 NPD Xbox platforms

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
3. Madden NFL 21
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
5. Forza Horizon 4
6. NBA 2K21*
7. Cyberpunk 2077
8. FIFA 21
9. Minecraft: Xbox One Edition
10. UFC 4

December 2020 NPD Nintendo platforms

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
2. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
3. Ring Fit Adventure
4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
5. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
7. Just Dance 2021
8. Super Mario Party*
9. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
10. Super Mario Odyssey*

That’s all we’ve got for this month’s report. For more information, be sure to check Piscatella’s thread here. You can also check out the December 2020 NPD report here.