According to The NPD Group, consumers spent over $43 billion on video games throughout 2018. That marks an 18% increase over 2017 spending. There are a couple of important notes about this. This figure is for both software and hardware. It also does not take into account digital sales since the NPD cannot reliably track digital sales figures.

The best selling title of the year was Red Dead Redemption 2. The second and third best selling titles in 2018 were Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and NBA 2K19 respectively.

Though the best offering from Nintendo came in at the fifth best selling game (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) that didn't change the fact that Nintendo was the biggest publisher in 2018. Nintendo was also the studio that had the best selling gaming hardware in 2018 with the NIntendo Switch.

If you want to take a look at the top 20 games of 2018, at least according to The NPD Group, look no further than the handy list seen below.

1. Red Dead Redemption II
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
3. NBA 2K19
4. Madden NFL 19
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
6. Marvel’s Spider-Man
7. Far Cry 5
8. God of War
9. Monster Hunter: World
10. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
11. Grand Theft Auto V
12. Mario Kart 8
13. FIFA 19
14. Battlefield V
15. Super Mario Odyssey
16. Call of Duty: WWII
17. Dragon Ball: Fighterz
18. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
19. Super Mario Party
20. Pokemon: Lets Go Pikachu