Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone are 2020's top-earning game

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FIFA 20 is the second best-earning game of the year

Call of Duty
(Image credit: Infinity Ward)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone combined to take the position of the highest-earning game of 2020, and it wasn't even close.

Over the last week, research firm SuperData published a free report studying the revenue figures for the top 10 games over 2020. As SuperData's report reveals, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone were combined into one product, resulting in the single product itself earning around $1,913,000 over the course of 2020, just a touch shy of $2 billion in total.

As we mentioned previously, this puts Modern Warfare and Warzone as the top earning game in 2020 by a huge margin. Taking second position is FIFA 20 with $1,083,000 earned, and sitting at position number three is none other than GTA 5, earning $911 million over the course of the year.

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Two other 2K-released games took the fourth and fifth spots: NBA 2K21 and NBA 2K20, respectively. Despite NBA 2K21 only launching in September 2020, it still positioned itself as the fourth-best earning game of the year with $889 million earned, while NBA 2K20 earned $771 over the year.

Next comes Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at number 6, despite only launching in November 2020. The latest release in Activision's shooter franchise earned a staggering $678 million over the final two months of the year, beating out Animal Crossing: New Horizons at number seven, which earned $654 million.

Somewhat surprisingly, Cyberpunk 2077 places at number eight on the list of the best earners in 2020, accumulating $609 million in sales for CD Projekt, despite a fairly tumultuous launch. Taking position nine is the Sims 4 with $462 million earned, and rounding out the list at position 10 is Bethesda's Doom Eternal, which earned $454 million over the year.

All in all, it's a fairly predictable list of the best-earning games in 2020, although I'm surprised at a few games that didn't make the cut. In particular, I expected Assassin's Creed Valhalla to be one of the best-selling games of the year, and I'm somewhat surprised that the incredibly high-profile launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, after so many years of anticipation, failed to crack the top 10 list.

For our pick of the best releases of the last year, you can check out our 25 best games of 2020 feature for more.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.