The gaming industry is one of the biggest industries in the world, with the leading titles earning billions in revenue a year. Many popular video game franchises can be played across numerous platforms giving them even more share of the market. According to the data presented by Safe Betting Sites, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the top-grossing premium gaming title across both PC and console video games in 2020 with $1.91B in revenue.

COD Modern Warfare Highest-Grossing Premium Game of 2020 – $1.93B

The Call Of Duty franchise is one of the most successful video game franchises across all gaming platforms since its first title’s release in 2003. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the 16th instalment in the Call of Duty series and was released in October 2019 as a reboot of the Modern Warfare sub-series.

The Activision produced game experimented with a hybrid business model with the release of its free-to-play battle royale game, Warzone in March 2020. The move proved to be a huge success as Warzone became an important contributor in the sales funnels for its in-game content and its premium titles, Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War.

In 2020, Modern Warfare recorded a revenue of $1.93B – the highest premium title in 2020. Call of Duty’s 17th instalment Black Ops Cold War was released in November 2020 and ranks as the sixth highest-grossing game of 2020 with recorded revenue of $678M.

Sports Games Enjoy Strong 2020 Due to Lockdowns

Sports games enjoyed a strong 2020 due to several factors owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. As sports leagues around the world were suspended due to the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, many sought alternative forms of entertainment and Video games were one of the leading beneficiaries. As a result, three of the top 10 games in 2020 belong to the sporting category with FIFA 20’s $1.08B revenue the second highest.

Even when major sports leagues started to resume, the sports genre continued to perform strongly. NBA 2K20 experienced a resurgence in revenue later in its life cycle than 2K19 as a result of the hype built around the NBA restart. NBA 2K21 also benefitted because the NBA’s improvised Playoff schedule coincided with the game’s release. As a result, NBA 2K21 generated an estimated 20% more revenue at launch than the previous year’s launch.

Overall in 2020, NBA 2K21 was the fourth-highest grossing premium game of 2020 with $889M in revenue. NBA 2K20 is next in the rankings with $771M in revenue for 2020.