2017 – Call of Duty: WWII

IGN Score: 8/10

Theme: War, Comradeship, Revenge, Sacrifice, Obedience vs. Doing what is right, Compassion. (check)

2016 – Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

IGN Score: 7.7/10

Theme: Greed, War, Comradeship, Extremism, Honor, Sacrifice

2015 – Call of Duty: Black Ops III

IGN Score: 9.2/10

Theme: Warfare, Conspiracy, Secrecy, Obsession, Big Brother, Willpower

2014 – Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

IGN Score: 9.1/10

Theme: Power and Corruption, Manipulation, Friendship, War, Heroism, Questioning Authority

2013 – Grand Theft Auto V

IGN Score: 10/10

Theme: Friendship, Family, Betrayal, Greed, Power, Choices and Consequences, Depravity, the human condition, The Ills of Western Society

Conclusion: As we can see from all of the top selling titles of the past five years, a solid franchise appears to be a major indicator of financial success for video games. All five of these titles also offer multiplayer modes, with Grand Theft Auto 5 as the only game where the campaign outshines the online aspects of the game. I think genre popularity can also be linked to the success of these games as the demand for first person shooters with a variety of PvP modes, especially team death-match and battle royale, have sky-rocketed in past decade. Another item of note, all of these games are well tailored to a testosterone rich audience – a predominantly male cast (except COD WWII), blood, guns, violence, and manliness abound. 

As for quality of games, none of these games agreed with the corresponding DICE Game of the Year Award but none of them had a score below 7.7 either. So I think solid franchises (COD & GTA) paired with a reputation of making quality games and the fact that these games can also be utilized as a source of socialization, all contribute to the commercial success of a game (at least in recent years).

P.S. I would have liked to apply the checklist to each of these games but time did not allow for it.

Lists of Works Cited

Kain, Eric. “The Best-Selling Video Games of 2017 (So Far)” Forbes, 16 Dec, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2017/12/16/the-best-selling-video-games-of-2017-so-far/#77e08bc8ab2b

Kain, Eric. “The Top Ten Best-Selling Video Games Of 2014” Forbes, 19 Jan, 2015. https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2015/01/19/the-top-ten-best-selling-video-games-of-2014/#17f5689782cf

Ranj, Brandt. “The 20 Best-Selling games of the last year” Business Insider, May 2, 2016. https://www.businessinsider.com/best-selling-video-games-2015-2016-5

Tassi, Paul. “The Best-Selling Games of Revel a Few Surprises” Forbes, 23 Jan, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/01/23/the-best-selling-games-of-2016-reveal-a-few-surprises/#62121bea608e

“Top 10 Best Selling Video Games in 2013” WholesGame, 28 Feb, 2014, https://wholesgame.com/trade-info/video-games-2013/