Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the best-selling game of the year in the U.S. That update comes via Circana executive director and analyst Mat Piscatella, who shared a thread on Thursday, diving into video game software and hardware sales for the month of December 2024. It's a return to form for Call of Duty, which was displaced in 2023 by WB Games' Hogwarts Legacy. Just like in November and October, Black Ops 6 was naturally the best-selling title of the month.
The month of December was mostly stacked with existing games, and only one new title broke into the top 20 games sold, Bethesda Softworks' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which debuted at #14 for the month overall.
Video game hardware sales fell across the board by 29%, with all three consoles down year-over-year. PlayStation 5 is best-selling console of the month, followed by Nintendo Switch. Per Circana, overall spending for the month of December fell 8.9% year-over-year to $7.5 billion.
Below, you can find details on all the best-selling games of the month and the year. Bear in mind that Circana tracks dollar sales (not units) and that some publishers dont' share data on digital games sold, or they don't share any data at all.
December 2024 Circana sales charts: Here are the top 20 best-selling games in the U.S.
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Madden NFL 25
3. EA Sports College Football 25
4. EA Sports FC 25
5. Super Mario Party Jamboree*
6. Sonic X Shadow Generations
7. Hogwarts Legacy
8. Astro Bot
9. Minecraft****
10. NBA 2K25*
11. Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero
12. Elden Ring
13. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
14. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
15. Helldivers 2
16. Mario Kart 8*
17. Mario and Luigi: Brothership*
18. God of War Ragnarok
19. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
20. Just Dance 2025 Edition
December 2024 Circana sales charts: Here are the best-selling games of the year
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. EA Sports College Football 25
3. Helldivers 2
4. Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero
5. NBA 2K25**
6. Madden NFL 25
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
8. EA Sports FC 25
9. Elden Ring
10. EA Sports MVP Bundle
11. Hogwarts Legacy
12. Dragon's Dogma 2
13. WWE 2K24**
14. MLB The Show 24**
15. Grand Theft Auto 5**
16. Minecraft****
17. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
18. Tekken 8
19. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
20. NBA 2K24**
*Denotes no digital sales data
**Denotes no digital sales data on Xbox or Nintendo Switch
***Denotes no digital sales data for October through December
****Denotes no digital sales data on Nintendo Switch
A winning combination
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is undoubtedly a huge success, driving subscription growth for Xbox Game Pass on Xbox platforms, while also retaining its extremely strong sales elsewhere. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the future, but for now, I have a hard time imagining Activision and Microsoft aren't happy.
It's also cool seeing Arrowhead and PlayStation's Helldivers 2 cling to third place for the year so strongly. That game had a meteoric rise and it's still going strong now thanks to some great updates from the developers.
