The ESA's list comes from data gathered by the NPD group, a market research group that's been keeping track of game sales for years. The NPD tracks monthly sales of video games, but doesn't release those reports publicly.
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It should come as no surprise that most of the best-sellers are recent titles in long-running game franchises — in a couple of cases multiple games from the same franchise made the cut. When you break them down by rating, half of the best-selling games are rated M for Mature, seven are rated E or E10+, and only three are rated T, highlighting the split between the two major demographics driving video game sales.
Ordered from lowest to highest, these are the 20 best-selling games of the past year.
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No. 20 "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain"
No. 19 "NBA 2K15"
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No. 18 "Destiny: The Taken King"
No. 17 "Dying Light"
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No. 16 "The Witcher 3"
No. 15 "Super Smash Bros"
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No. 14 "Halo 5: Guardians"
No. 13 "Battlefield: Hardline"
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No. 12 "Lego Jurassic World"
No. 11 "Batman: Arkham Knight"
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No. 10 "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare"
No. 9 "FIFA 16"
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No. 8 "Mortal Kombat X"
No. 7 "Minecraft"
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No. 6 "Grand Theft Auto V"
No. 5 "NBA 2K16"
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No. 4 "Star Wars: Battlefront"
No. 3 "Fallout 4"
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No. 2 "Madden NFL 16"
No. 1 "Call Of Duty: Black Ops III"
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