The Most Popular Game in Each Year of the 2010s

Video games come out at a fairly standard pace, so each year sees hundreds of new options for players to dive into. Each decade includes some exceptional, high-quality titles that attract players from around the world, and this is as true of the 2010s as it was in any previous decade. We looked at the games released between 2010 and 2019 and identified the most popular from each year. Of course, popularity isn’t always quantifiable as a metric, so for this article, it’s primarily based on sales, but also each game’s overall impact on the industry in the year it was most popular.

2010) Call of Duty: Black Ops

The Call of Duty franchise was hot throughout the 2000s, and that didn’t change in the following decade. With the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops in 2010, Activision reinvented its franchise once more, and this time, it was pretty big. The game received widespread critical and player acclaim for its excellent story, multiplayer modes, and more. It beat out Modern Warfare 2 as the franchise’s top seller, moving more than 5.6 million copies within a single day. Since then, Activision has sold more than 25 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops, and it was easily the most popular game in 2010. That said, Red Dead Redemption certainly gave it a run for its money, as did Halo: Reach and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

2011) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Cards on the table, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the best-selling game of 2011, but we’re awarding the most popular prize to the long-awaited The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The RPG easily took the lead in its genre and sold remarkably well upon release. Critics and players couldn’t stop praising it for all aspects of gameplay, and within just a week on the market, it sold more than 7 million copies. That number has tripled since its release, and many consider Skyrim to be one of the greatest games ever made. It had some stiff competition in 2011, thanks to the release of Minecraft, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and Battlefield 3, not to mention the aforementioned threequel in the Modern Warfare series.

2012) Call of Duty: Black Ops II

While 2012 saw the release of Assassin’s Creed III, Borderlands 2, and Halo 4, all of which are excellent games, we have to give the year to Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The game outsold everything else by a wide margin and was a huge success, selling over 24 million copies within a year of release. That’s not just great for the franchise; it’s incredibly remarkable for any video game series. Many consider it one of the best Black Ops games ever released, with plenty of praise heaped on its Zombies mode and story. It also boasted excellent multiplayer, which is what you want in a CoD title, so it took out the competition pretty handily in 2012.

2013) Grand Theft Auto V

There were some exceptional games released in 2013, including The Last of Us, but there’s no contest — the year goes to Grand Theft Auto V. Not only is it the top-selling and most popular game of 2013 by far, but GTA V is also one of the most popular video games of all time. Rockstar Games has sold more than 225 million copies of GTA V, earning billions in revenue, so it’s no wonder the studio has let it keep the cash rolling in while it gets things just right for its sequel. Still, while fans are eager to get their hands on Grand Theft Auto VI, Rockstar didn’t let GTA V sit idle and has been updating and improving it ever since its release.

2014) Destiny

While the best-selling game of 2014 was Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, followed by Madden NFL 15, the game we’ve chosen as the most popular is Destiny. Bungie pumped a ton of cash into its development, and because it was an entirely new IP, gamers jumped in to check it out, ensuring it sold ridiculously well upon launch. The game has since been expanded and spawned a sequel released a few years later, but in 2014, it was all many gamers could talk about (outside of GTA V and Minecraft, of course). Destiny sold more than 25 million copies in its first year and generated hundreds of millions for Bungie and Activision.

2015) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt & Fallout 4

After weighing the options, 2015 turned out to be a split year, as both The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Fallout 4 were released to widespread critical and player acclaim. Once more, we must acknowledge that Call of Duty: Black Ops III was the best-selling game, but there’s no denying the pop culture impact of the year’s chosen popular titles. Each game continues to attract players more than a decade after its release, which goes to show how impressively it was coded. While some didn’t glom onto Fallout 4’s base-building mechanic, so many millions did, and updates have kept the content flowing for years.

2016) Pokémon Go

It was a great year for video games in 2016, with the releases of Doom, Dark Souls III, Overwatch, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. While they’re all excellent titles deserving of praise, there’s absolutely no way that the year could go to anything but Pokémon Go. The mobile game became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, attracting players who’d loved the franchise for years as well as those who’d never even heard of it before. You couldn’t walk around in a major city anywhere in the world and not see someone playing it, so there’s no competition: 2016 was the year of Pokémon Go.

2017) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The best-selling game of 2017 was PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and while we’d love to give it to PUBG, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was more widely enjoyed across cultures and continents. That’s not to belittle PUBG’s impact, which established the battle royale genre, but looking back over the years, it’s largely fallen behind Fortnite and others. BoTW, on the other hand, continues to receive critical acclaim, and it spawned a massive sequel that continues to wow players, young and old. Still, there were other games released that folks couldn’t stop discussing in 2017, including Star Wars Battlefront II (for all the wrong reasons), Horizon Zero Dawn, Destiny 2, and Call of Duty: WWII.

2018) Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Games doesn’t mess around when it comes to best-selling, popular titles because in 2018, it was all about Red Dead Redemption 2. The game was easily the biggest and best, though it had plenty of competition. God of War certainly gave it a run for its money, earning Game of the Year, and it got some competition from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Still, RDR2 was and remains one of the best open-world action-adventure games ever made. It killed the competition in sales and is widely considered one of the greatest games ever made. Since its release, RDR2 has sold over 82 million copies.

2019) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

It was a tough call for 2019, seeing as it saw the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield, Borderlands 3, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, but in the end, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare took the lead. It was the best-selling game of 2019 and rebooted the franchise with excellent gameplay mechanics, graphics, and multiplayer modes. It also features an outstanding solo campaign that helped keep the franchise going for millions of players. Modern Warfare sold more than 30 million copies within less than a year, and it outperformed every other game in 2019.

Which was your favorite game of the 2010s? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

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