Video games have become a $350 billion industry as of 2022, and a look back at the sales data provides an fascinating look at the evolution of the industry and the rise and fall of various genres.
Fighting games, buoyed by excellent performance in arcades (remember those?), were strong sellers in the early 90s. In the late 90s, Pokémon became a worldwide phenomenon and topped the charts for four consecutive years.
Music games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band flooded the sales charts starting in 2006, but vanished just a few years later. And in 2009, Call of Duty became an unstoppable sales behemoth, selling millions of copies with yearly releases.
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Cumulative worldwide sales numbers are used whenever possible, though it can be difficult getting concrete numbers in some years. All U.S. sales data is via NPD.
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