The Sage Recaps: The Top 10 Selling Video Games of 2022

2022 was a year of vast success in the video game industry and also managed to reintroduce many beloved franchises that have not seen great recognition in years, while others continue to impress fans. Compared to prior years, 2022 has sold a whopping $97.67 billion US dollars according to J. Clement with Statista, which has set a new record in the industry. Here are the top 10 selling games that have helped to reach this amount.

“MLB: The Show 22”

“MLB: The Show 22,” released on April 5, 2022, is the 17th edition of the “MLB The Show” series. As the first of the series to be playable on the Nintendo Switch, its sales were bound to be greater. With updated graphics and cleaner animations, “MLB The Show 22” attempts to up its game against its previous installments. 

Despite this, “MLB: The Show 22” didn’t get as high a rating since last year’s, however, it doesn’t mean that it’s a bad game. All and all, “MLB: The Show 22” is still great for people who enjoy baseball and will continue to be for years to come.

Jason Chase, an avid enjoyer for MLB games, compares this year’s “MLB: The Show” to “MLB: The Show 21.”

“Year after year it essentially feels like the same game, with a few small changes such as a new game mode or new customization options,” Chase said. “Players get the new game each year because it has all the new players and those small updates maybe some new legends. It feels new for a couple months, but feels like the old game real quick.”

“Horizon II: Forbidden West”

Nominated in seven 2022 Game Awards categories, “Horizon II: Forbidden West” follows Aloy’s journey in the sequel to the game “Horizon Zero Dawn,” in an action open world Role Playing Game (RPG). Released on Feb. 18, 2022, the game has received many positive reviews from critics and praise for the much larger setting than the previous game. 

“It’s more of the same from ‘Zero Dawn’ in a lot of ways, but with significant improvements across the board to create a generally superior experience,” Game Rant, an avid video game critic added.

“Pokémon Legends: Arceus“

“Pokémon Legends: Arceus,” considered by many to be an experiment by GameFreak and Nintendo, was released on Jan. 28, 2022. Arceus was the first in many to alter the past Pokémon formulas, resulting in the selling of 13.91 million copies as of Sept. 22, 2022. Having to only keep catching, battling and trading Pokémon mechanics, “Legends: Arceus” also manages to use different styles to mix up the way players fight. Also, it has an open world to explore and catch Pokémon freely rather than being locked into purely turn-based combat.

“FIFA 23” 

“FIFA 23,” released Sept. 27, 2022, is yet another addition to the EA Sports franchise. Selling over fourteen million copies, “FIFA 23” has managed to surpass its predecessor, “FIFA 22,” by a 6% increase in sales; this could be due to the hype around this year’s World Cup. 

With this, both the Men’s 2022 and Women’s 2023 World Cup modes have been reintroduced to the franchise. 

“Pokémon Scarlet and Violet”

“Pokémon Scarlet and Violet,” the ninth generation of Pokémon, explores concepts first experimented with in the recent “Pokémon: Legends Arceus.” Just like Arceus, “Scarlet and Violet” allows for much more freedom and exploration around the world instead of using the typical turn-based combat through random chance. Selling ten million copies in only the first three days of its release, it was bound to continue its trend of success.  

“LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga”

“LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga” continues to impress Star Wars fans with its massive improvements compared to past LEGO Star Wars games. Having an

expansive galaxy to explore and a wide roster to choose from, there are limitless new discoveries to be made by players.  All nine episodes total approximately 18 and a half hours of playing time. With its many new incorporated features, its five million copies sold are well deserved.

“God of War Ragnarök”

A highly-anticipated sequel to Santa Monica Studio’s highly successful first entry to the series, “God of War,” “God of War Ragnarök” has managed to further awe its already invested fans with beautiful effects, an intriguing story and highly satisfying combat. Alongside these attributes, the game managed to sell over five million copies in only its first week released, claiming the title of Playstation’s fastest seller.

“Madden NFL 23” 

“Madden NFL 23,” now the third sports game entry on this list, as expected, had many improvements to the 2021 game, “Madden NFL 22,” both visually and mechanically. These improvements truly take advantage of what next-gen and newer PCs have to offer. This was one of the reasons for its great success on the market coming in at the third-highest-selling game of 2022.

“Elden Ring”

From Software’s newest ‘souls game,’ “Elden Ring,” was not only able to earn the title of Game Of The Year (GOTY) due to its incredible open world, combat, storyline and exploration aspects, but also was the second highest selling game in the US, with around twenty million copies sold. “Elden Ring” took the gaming community by storm in the earlier half of 2022 and still has a massive player base to this day.

Junior Daniel Martinez has truly enjoyed his time spent playing “Elden Ring.”

“It’s one of the best open world Role Playing Game (RPG) games I have ever played,” Martinez said. “It genuinely deserved the award of GOTY; the feeling of being able to explore and have so much freedom of customization was incredible.”

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″

“Call Of Duty (COD): Modern Warfare 2” was released alongside the sequel to popular battle royale, “Call of Duty: Warzone 2,” both being majorly successful in the industry. Considering the major letdown to the two previous entries to the franchise, “Call of Duty: Cold War” and “Call of Duty: Vanguard,” fans did not particularly have very high hopes.

Yes, the game still had many issues such as major crashes at launch and an underwhelming gulag system, but it still brought back that “COD spark” fans were hoping for. Outstandingly, the game was able to surpass 100 million copies sold, far exceeding all other competitors on this list. 

Though the other games could not come close to “MWII’s” insurmountable amount, this does not take away from the fact that these games all assisted in the industry’s outstanding success in 2022.