According to the December 2018 NPD report, Red Dead Redemption 2 was the best-selling game in 2018 in the United States, while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the best-selling game of December.



The race to the best-seller position in Software was very close. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 digital sales on PC are not currently tracked by The NPD Group and made all the difference to the rankings. — Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 22, 2019

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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Red Dead Redemption 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Battlefield V NBA 2K19 Mario Kart 8 Madden NFL 19 Super Mario Party Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! Marvel’s Spider-Man

The Best-Selling Games of the Last 23 Years 24 IMAGES

It’s been a close race between Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 earning the title of best-selling game of the year, as Black Ops 4 beat RDR2 out as the best-selling game of October while RDR2 won out in November. As of November Black Ops 4 had been the best-selling game of the year, though their positions have ultimately switched.Though exact sales numbers haven’t been released, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella took to Twitter to confirm the race for the best-selling game of 2018 was very close. In fact, he mentioned the fact that Black Ops 4’s digital PC sales aren’t tracked by the NPD group, which very well could have placed it above RDR2 in overall sales.Even with this victory, RDR2 was December 2018’s second best-selling game, while Black Ops 4 was the third. Instead, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the best-selling game in the U.S. for December and the fifth best-selling game of the year, even without digital sales being tracked.Ultimate obliterated Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s launch month dollar sales by over 70 percent, and has officially become the best-selling console exclusive for its first month in video game history, surpassing the launch month dollar sales of 2010’s Halo: Reach for Xbox 360.Other notable game sales records include Mario Kart 8 becoming the second best-selling racing game of all time (behind only Mario Kart Wii in lifetime dollar sales), NBA 2K19 becoming the year’s best-selling sports game and third best-selling game of the year overall, and Nintendo becoming the highest software revenue generating publisher of 2018, a feat the company hasn’t accomplished since 2009.Here are the top ten best-selling games for December 2018:Ultimately, dollar sales of tracked video game software reached $7.1 billion in 2018, a 7 percent growth from 2017. NPD notes this is the highest annual software total since $7.5 billion was reached in 2012.The December 2018 NPD report also revealed that Nintendo Switch beat out PS4 as the best-selling console of 2018. For more on game sales, check out which games sold best in November October and September in 2018, and and find out what the best-selling games of the last 23 years have been.

Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter