The 10 Best-Selling Video Games of 2014

1/11 SLIDES © Courtesy of Ubisoft

Marketing budgets have increased

The juggernauts of video gaming — companies like Electronic Arts, Activision and Ubisoft — are sinking more and more money into marketing their AAA games. The process is similar to that with a blockbuster movie: cooking the games from scratch with development staffs the size of a small country, garnishing them with voice talent from popular movies and TV shows (Kevin Spacey in the latest Call of Duty, Peter Dinklage in Destiny) and plastering them everywhere with an expansive marketing budget, hoping for a big payday.

Sometimes it works. Last year’s big payday went to Rockstar Games, when the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto Vshattered records and proved video games could be even bigger moneymakers than the summer blockbusters. The title made over $1 billion in sales over a matter of weeks. It also includes microtransactions in its multiplayer arenas (though universally reviled, at least GTA V’s are done well), allowing for further income from dedicated players.

If Rockstar set a new bar for game sales, numbers from video games data repository VGChartz.com indicate it was one that other publishers fell far below this year. “Destiny,” the latest offering from Bungie, the developers of the acclaimed Halo series, received a lukewarm reception and earned publisher Activision only 3.8 billion unit sales in the U.S. – a disappointing result compared to the 21 million sales of GTA V last year.

We’ve collected the sales data from each platform in the U.S. and collated it all into a list of the 10 best-selling video games of the year. It makes for slightly disappointing reading: A couple of the entries are still vestigial sales from last year’s hits, others are new iterations of age-old franchises, and most of the new blood on the list was not warmly received by critics or the general public.

Maybe this was just an unlucky year for video gaming. Or perhaps the sales figures are an indication that customers want games that have thought and originality, and are executed well, rather than reams of marketing guff that spins lukewarm products as God’s gift to gaming-kind.

Meanwhile, small game studios have seen something of a renaissance. Thanks in part to platforms like Steam’s greenlight program and, of course, crowdsourcing initiatives like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Patreon, it’s now getting easier and easier for indie developers to provide us with quality, thought-provoking titles. "Papers, please,” for example, places you in the uncomfortable moral position of being a border officer in a war-torn Soviet nation, while “The Stanley Parable” is a clever deconstruction of a video game’s illusion of choice, underscored by a sense of wit that’s channeled heavily from Douglas Adams.

Maybe the bigger publishers could stand to take some notes from these guys.

More on The Fiscal Times: Video Game Changers -- 21 Titles that Rocked the Industry

2/11 SLIDES © Courtesy of 2K Games

10. NBA 2K15

U.S. Unit Sales: 1.6 Million

Publisher: 2K Games

Genre: Sports

Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PC

Someone throws a ball. Someone else catches it and puts it in a basket. Points are presumably scored.

3/11 SLIDES © Courtesy of Electronic Arts

9. Titanfall

U.S. Unit Sales: 2 Million

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Genre: FPS/War/Pacific Rim

Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox 360

This multiplayer shooter was surprisingly fun, with the added gimmick of being able to summon a giant robotic exoskeleton a welcome addition. It did suffer, though, from a nonexistent story mode and a backstory that was about as clear as mud. But who cares about that? Look at the big scary robot! Watch it move! Ooh - an explosion! Shiny!

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8. Super Smash Bros.

U.S. Unit Sales: 2.1 Million

Publisher: Nintendo

Genre: Beat-em-Up

Platforms: Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS

A favorite in college dorms the world over, the latest iteration of Nintendo's classic, with a melange of characters and stages from all of Nintendo's universes, sold well this year. In addition to fixing some annoying flaws from the previous iteration, "Super Smash Bros: Brawl," this version also added a host of new characters and stages.

5/11 SLIDES © Courtesy of Ubisoft

7. Call of Duty: Ghosts

U.S. Unit Sales: 2.4 Million

Publisher: Ubisoft

Genre: FPS/War

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

This is another title from last year, which kind of underlines how poor this year has been for video games.

It's another "Call of Duty" game. The South Americans are the bad guys. Things blow up. America saves the day.

6/11 SLIDES © Courtesy of Ubisoft

6. Watch_Dogs

U.S. Unit Sales: 2.5 Million

Publisher: Ubisoft

Genre: Open-World, Action-Adventure

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Another hyped Ubisoft release that disappointed, Watch_Dogs had you play as an uninteresting hacker archetype who is given the tools to hack anything electronic in a near-future version of Chicago. Putting us in the shoes of a cyberpunk revolutionary would have been an interesting move if said shoes didn't keep falling through the floor as a result of physics bugs. Still, the game sold well, thanks in part to a misleading E3 demo, a marketing budget roughly the size of Bermuda's GDP, and being ported to basically every platform.

7/11 SLIDES © Courtesy of Mojang

5. Minecraft

U.S. Unit Sales: 2.7 Million

Publisher: Mojang

Genre: Sandbox/Virtual Lego

Platforms: Pretty much anything with a screen by this point.

Minecraft has long been a time-sink and procrastination tool for both casual obsessives and people with far too much time on their hands, and it has capitalized further on its popularity by releasing on a wide range of console app stores.

8/11 SLIDES © Courtesy of EA Sports

4. Madden NFL 15

U.S. Unit Sales: 2.9 Million

Publisher: EA Sports

Genre: Sports

Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Someone throws a ball. Someone else catches it. Points are presumably scored at some point. Another well-reviewed release in the venerable football franchise.

3. Grand Theft Auto V

U.S. Unit Sales: 3.3 Million

Publisher: Rockstar

Genre: Third-Person Sandbox/Action Adventure

Platforms: PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PC

GTA V broke records last year when it easily made over $1 billion in unit sales — in a couple of weeks, no less — and sales are still trickling in. Spurred on by the release of a "remastered" version for next-gen consoles, this crime caper series looks set to remain in the record books for quite some time.

2. Destiny

U.S. Unit Sales: 3.8 Million

Publisher: Activision

Genre: FPS/MMORPG

Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3

Activision spent way too much time and money building up hype for what ultimately turned out to be a rather lacklustre game, despite being created by Bungie, the same team that made the monolithic "Halo" series. Though it had music from the legendary Paul McCartney and a guest performance by the only-slightly-less-legendary Peter Dinklage, the game's lack of story and world exposition was widely criticized, along with some mechanical flaws. The title still gleaned good sales based off the strength of Bungie's name alone.

1. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

U.S. Unit Sales: 5.8 Million

Publisher: Activision

Genre: FPS/War

Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Another year, another cookie-cutter, Ameri-centric entry in the insipid "Call of Duty" series. Despite having single-player campaigns that get shorter and shorter with each iteration — this one must last about 15 minutes by this point — these games still manage to sell well since they're one of only two console titles where gamers are guaranteed to find multiplayer action anytime (the other being the bug-ridden "Battlefield").

But hey! This one's different! It's got Kevin Spacey!

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