In the first half of 2022, many high-profile game releases have already been released throughout the year. The long-awaited Elden Ring conquered the gaming world when it finally came out at the end of February, and Sony launched Horizon Forbidden West just a week before. Nintendo has also released new entries in many of its major series: Pokemon Legends: Arceus in January and Kirby and the Forgotten Land in March. Now a new report from the NPD Group has revealed the best-selling cars of 2022.
NPD Group has become one of the most reliable sources of sales statistics in the gaming industry, and the research company regularly publishes monthly statistics. In previous monthly rankings, anticipated games like Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Elden Ring often topped the charts, and games like LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, also showed good results. Now, the latest report by Matt Piscatella of the NPD Group looks at the first six months of 2022, which are dominated by old and new games.
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A report released Friday by Piscatella shows that Elden Ring, unsurprisingly, became the best-selling game in the first half of 2022 after several months since its release. Elden Ring is followed by LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and the top five are rounded out by Horizon Forbidden West and MLB The Show 22. MLB’s high score is particularly impressive because the ranking does not include digital sales of the baseball game. on Xbox or Switch.
The best-selling games of 2022
Elden Ring LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Pokemon Legends: Arceus Horizon Forbidden West MLB The Show 22 Call of Duty: Vanguard Gran Turismo 7 Kirby and the Forgotten Land Mario Kart 8 Madden NFL 22 Nintendo Switch Sports Minecraft FIFA 22 Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Monster Hunter: Rise Animal Crossing: New Horizons Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Mario Party Superstars Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War Dying Light 2: Stay Human
After the top five, the rest of the list is a mix of both new games released this year and older games that continue to boast impressive sales. Mario Kart 8 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are in the top 20 in 9th and 16th places respectively, which is probably supported by their recent DLC releases. Monster Hunter Rise also entered the top 20, taking 15th place, the game received a PC version and the first major expansion of Sunbreak this year. In the first half of 2022, Nintendo was the leader among all publishers, ranking seven games.
While there have already been many major releases in the first half of 2022, the gaming industry has still prepared a lot of games for players in the second half. Nintendo will still see several major franchises get new games before the end of 2022, with Splatoon, Xenoblade Chronicles and Pokemon set to release new games. The Saints Row reboot should be launched next month, and in the fall, high-profile releases such as God of War: Ragnarok and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are promised. The rest of the busy 2022 schedule will look to give Elden Ring an opportunity to compete for its money.
