The ESA Lists the Best-Selling Games & Genres of 2016 in the US

In their Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry report, the Entertainment Software Association has revealed the top 20 best-selling games of 2016 (by units sold) in the United States.

Citing data from The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service/Digital Games Tracking Service, here’s The ESA’s full list:

  1. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
  2. Battlefield 1
  3. Grand Theft Auto V
  4. Madden NFL 17
  5. NBA 2K17
  6. The Division
  7. Overwatch
  8. Minecraft
  9. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
  10. FIFA 17
  11. Pokemon Sun
  12. Pokemon Moon
  13. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  14. Star Wars Battlefront
  15. Final Fantasy XV
  16. Titanfall 2
  17. NBA 2K16
  18. Rainbow Six Siege
  19. Far Cry Primal
  20. Dark Souls 3

The NPD released their top 10 best-selling games of 2016 in the US list in January, and it also saw Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in 1st and Battlefield 1 in 2nd. After that though, the NPD and ESA lists vary.

The ESA’s report also says the best-selling video game genre of 2016 (by units sold) was Shooter, with a 27.5% market share. Action was next at 22.5%, with RPG at 12.9%, Sports at 11.7%, Adventure at 7.8%, Fighting at 5.8%, Strategy at 4.3%, all others at 4.1%, and Racing at 3.3%.

Other stats from the report show that the most important factor influencing decisions to purchase video games is quality of the graphics (price is 2nd, interesting story/premise is 3rd, and online gameplay capability is 4th), the average gamer is 35 years old, and 48% of US households own a dedicated game console. Their survey gathered data from more than 4,000 American households.

[Source: The ESA via Rich Taylor, NeoGAF]

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