Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Grand Theft Auto V were the best selling games on the PlayStation store last year in the United States and Europe respectively. Although Modern Warfare was released in 2019, GTA V debuted back in 2013, which makes the latter’s continued success all the more impressive. Both games were well reviewed upon release, and clearly financially lucrative for the developers.
The release of Grand Theft Auto V represented somewhat of a quantum leap forward in the world of gaming. Early adopters probably played GTAV on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, but in 2014 an enhanced edition of the game was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as well as a PC version in the following year. GTA V received record-setting reviews for its ambitious story in which the player commanded three separate characters, and for its beautifully realized rendition of Los Angeles, appropriately dubbed Los Santos. On the other hand, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was similarly praised but not to quite the same extent. Developer Infinity Ward’s 2019 remake of the 2007 original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare instantly became a financial juggernaut upon release, making over $600 million in its first three days.
The news that Modern Warfare and GTA V were PlayStation’s best digital sellers in 2019 comes by way of the company itself via their official US and European blogs. The 2019 PlayStation “best sellers” list is separated by region and then further detailed by platform. In the United States, Modern Warfare was the best selling PS4 game, Beat Saber was the best selling PSVR game, Apex Legends was the best selling free-to-play game, and Fortnite took every spot in the category of DLC and expansions.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the best sellers stayed largely the same except for GTA V, which was the best selling PS4 game. However, the full lists of the most popular PS4 games were vastly different between the two regions. Whereas NBA 2K and Madden NFL took up three of the top ten spots in the U.S., they took up zero in Europe, and instead were replaced by EA’s FIFA and UFC games.
One of the stranger takeaways from PlayStation’s 2019 best sellers list is that Apex Legends eclipsed Fortnite in both the U.S. and Europe. Both battle-royale games are free to play, but judging by the fact that Fortnite took every spot in the list of best-selling DLC/expansions, it doesn’t make much sense how Apex Legends beat it out. Nonetheless, the most surprising detail from PlayStation’s reports is that GTA V continues to reign supreme in the sales charts nearly seven years after release. In 2018, Grand Theft Auto V became the most profitable entertainment product of all time, and it doesn’t seem likely that the game will stop running its victory laps any time soon. If Call of Duty: Modern Warfare wants to keep up, it better have six more years of updates coming.
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Sources: PlayStation US and Europe