Unveiling Success: 10 REASONS Why These Games SOLD 20+ MILLION COPIES

Introduction

"When games sell well, part of that might be that the game is great, part of it might be hype, but the circumstances around a highly successful game are more often than not interesting. Hi folks, it's Falcon, and today on Game Ranks, 10 reasons why these games sold over 20 million copies.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

Starting with number 10, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This game came out in 2019, and as a yearly franchise, the COD games don't usually get a lot of time to innovate. But when they decided to reboot one of the most beloved entries of the franchise, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from 2007, they pulled out all the stops. This is going to be a new Call of Duty with an updated engine, new movement abilities like the Tactical Sprint, changes to aiming, the ability to mount, and the campaign. The Modern Warfare campaign remains a high watermark for the series. In terms of visuals alone, the 'Clean House' mission looks almost photorealistic in this version of the game. Probably the biggest draw, or at least the thing that kept people playing, was Warzone, the game's Battle Royale mode. They made some smart changes from the standard Battle Royale formula, like the whole Gulag mechanic, and in general, it just feels really good to play. There are a lot of reasons why this entry in the franchise sold so well, but for me, I think it's all the little details. 

Stuff like how you could do some real environmental damage, like pop basketballs or cause folding chairs to close when you hit them. I mean, so much stuff in this world can be broken and damaged, which is a far cry from previous Call of Duty games, which were very static. This attention to detail in this game just blows the rest of the franchise out of the water. Molotovs drop little embers on the ground while you're holding it. Your guy only throws away magazines when all the ammo is depleted. Your reload animations are often completely different when you have the Sleight of Hand perk. In the old games, they just sped up the reload animation, but in this game, it changes them completely. A lot of the time when the game came out, it was a guaranteed success. First off, it's Call of Duty. It's already set up for success. That's a big reason why this one sold 20 million copies. I mean, it probably would have even if it was a Battlefield 2042-style disaster. I don't know, maybe not 20 if it was universally hated. I don't know. But the devs also clearly put a lot of time and effort into this one, and that ended up making it a huge step forward for the series and just a high-quality game. When you've got the big marketing machine behind what is a very good game, it's usually going to be a pretty big success. 

Telltale's The Walking Dead

And number nine is Telltale's The Walking Dead. Might be hard to believe, but according to Telltale back in 2017, their Walking Dead series sold over 50 million episodes worldwide, which sounds like an absurd amount for an adventure game because it is. That's crazy. Before Walking Dead made them huge, at least for a little while, Telltale was putting out small episodic adventure games that didn't have a lot of mainstream appeal. Don't get me wrong, stuff like Sam and Max, their Monkey Island sequel, and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People were all pretty great for what they were, but none of that was ever gonna sell those types of numbers. And there wasn't any guarantee this game would do well either. Telltale had dipped their toes in more cinematic games with the mostly forgotten Jurassic Park game, which honestly wasn't very good, and a lot of fans had recently turned on The Walking Dead show with its abysmally slow second season. Like, the first season of the show is so good, and then, well, that's all I need to say. 

These games, though, could have wound up being a bomb pretty easily. Did you know that Clementine, arguably the main character of the entire series, was almost cut from the first game just weeks before recording audio? The devs were arguing whether players would find Clementine annoying and if they would resent having a protector. The interesting thing about these games is that they're not really about little details. They're more about really big moments. In terms of gameplay, there's not a whole lot going on here. It's dialogue mixed with the occasional QTE. Most of them lead to death if you fail them. It is mostly just the story that drew people in. The Walking Dead Season One came out at the best possible time when there was demand for a more mature story in games, but the big Triple A's were not providing that. The Last of Us was about a year away, and that was the harbinger of that type again. The story of Lee and Clementine resonated with people in a way you rarely see in games. I know people who bawled at the end of this season. Total waterworks. I'm not talking about myself at all. That's the kind of effect this game had on people who are not me. For whatever reason, it just worked on all those other people.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

And number eight is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. After the success of games like Oblivion and Fallout 3, the success of Skyrim was pretty much assured. But that doesn't mean that the game isn't still worthy of all of its sales. We don't know exactly how many copies Skyrim has sold since it came out back in 2011, but Todd Howard has said that the game has sold well over 30 million copies. Honestly, I think that's probably low considering how long it's been out and the fact that it still sells. Alright, for a game that old, this game's so popular, that its success has become a meme. It's one of the most popular games of all time, and there are a lot of reasons for that. But for me, the best part of Skyrim is just screwing around in the world. Yeah, there's an epic story to follow, but I kinda blasted through that pretty quickly and then just started messing around. Like, there are some goofy and unnecessary things you can just do for fun. And the modding scene, that's a huge reason for the game's success as well. There are so many things about Skyrim that make it stand out compared to other RPGs, though. 

The way the game lets you pick up objects to manipulate them in the world, that of course led people to the bucket trick, which seems so ridiculous it has to be intentional. But it wasn't intentional. They just left it in because it was really funny. Like, you know what I'm talking about. You can drop a bucket on a shopkeeper's head and rob him blind. So they can't see you and you can just take everything. Nothing happens. You're fine. It's goofy, but it's a great example of the many kinds of interactions going on in Skyrim that just aren't possible in most RPGs. Just the fact you can steal things, it's kind of unusual compared to a lot of other games. But like, there's a whole line of sight mechanic. You can pick up random objects. You can put them on somebody's head, and it does something. Very few RPGs give you that level of freedom. And Skyrim's for 2011. There's just so much stuff you can do for messing with bugs too, causing NPCs to fight each other by dropping weapons on the ground, and ridiculously overpowered spells with seemingly incompatible magic combinations. There's almost too much to talk about with Skyrim. Like, we're only scratching the surface here. 

The Last of Us (2013)

And number seven is The Last of Us. Easily Naughty Dog's most successful series managed to sell 6 million copies in its first year alone. The franchise has sold 37 million in total in the last nine years. That is just an incredible achievement for what is primarily a single-player experience. I mean, the original release had a pretty popular multiplayer mode, but the re-release that followed didn't include it. So I think most people think of the series as single-player only. The Uncharted games proved Naughty Dog could pull off cinematic storytelling, but The Last of Us elevated what the company was doing. Everything in it felt years ahead of its time. The character models, the environments, the animations, everything was a cut above everything else at the time. The graphics, if you go back to the 2013 original, aren't that impressive anymore. But everything else in the game sure holds up. 

Combat is extremely tense. There are some super cool little details about how you can scare enemies with an empty gun, but if you try to fire it and reveal you're out of ammo, they notice and they'll start attacking. The game's filled with little details like that which make it feel more believable. There's a part early on where, depending on what you do, you can clear out or ignore a house filled with zombie-like infected, and depending on what you do when you open a locked door close by, the characters will either whisper or speak normally. Good job. I've been playing the game since it came out on PS3, and I didn't know about that until embarrassingly recently. Of course, the real reason this game is so popular is the story, which is, of course, fantastic. Tons of little details managed to sneak in. They only enhance the experience though. 

Super Mario World (1990)

And number six is Super Mario World. With the movie currently out there smashing records and dominating Hollywood, it's an important reminder of the seemingly eternal power of Mario. The series in total has sold, and this is true, a freakishly absurd 830 million units worldwide, which means it's the best-selling video game franchise of all time. For when Mario says 'I'm number one', he means it. Take any random game in the series, it's probably sold more than 20 million. To directly quote Nintendo, 'What?' Yeah, I'm sorry, but, you know, I want to focus on one of the biggest and best games in the world, 1990's Super Mario World. Over its many iterations and re-releases, this one entry managed to sell over 34 million copies. Not as much as Super Mario Bros. 3, but it beats Super Mario 64 by a few million. Not a contest though. These games have all done ridiculously well, and for good reason. What makes Super Mario World special though is how open it is for a side-scrolling adventure game in 1990. The world map isn't just a place you can go to select a level. 

It changes drastically depending on how you complete a stage, whether you go to the Switch Palace, and where you decide to go. What's fun about this game in particular is that if you stick to the standard path, the game can be completed in just a couple of hours. But there's a lot more to it if you get out and explore. There are secret exits that lead to new levels, alternate pathways, and even an entire secret world, which has its own super secret area to find. The process of discovery is really what makes this game great, and there are so many ways you can tackle any given obstacle. They even give you an alternate entrance to the last level to make things easier if you're clever. All that, and for some reason, they put in a secret that completely changes the kind of weather in the overworld and swaps out enemies. For whatever reason, if you're a kid, a game like this makes it feel like anything is possible, and that's, of course, why a kid plays video games, so why every kid bugged their parents for months to get it. 

Dying Light

Number five is Dying Light. Believe it or not, Dying Light's part of the 20 million copies club. On February 2nd, 2023, the game's developer Techland stated the series had lifetime sales that exceeded 30 million, with the lion's share of those coming from the first game, which might sound crazy to you, but so is the power of the zombie game, and Dying Light is one of the best. In this case, it's not like The Walking Dead or Last of Us, where there's a real story and that's the big draw. With Dying Light, the best parts are the gameplay, the free-running, and just how satisfying it is to smash zombies and parkour around like a lunatic. That's what makes it great. It's just super fun. Where most open-world games give you a pretty limited set of abilities, Dying Light lets you grab enemies, dropkick them through the air, and just go all-around nuts. When enough skills are unlocked, you can pull off some pretty crazy moves. 

You can run circles around enemies. It's a stark contrast to a lot of open-world zombie games. Throwing the terrifying and exciting night sections, which for some reason were altered for the sequel, and the many cracked Easter eggs that you can find with some creativity. Put all that stuff together, you have a game that's fun to mess with. Seriously, this extended Super Mario Easter egg, we've talked about it a few times on the channel, it's one of the best of all time. It's super dumb, but they went all out with it. It's kind of one of the classic open-world, this is what makes great things, though. There are so many little details in Dying Light that are just lightning in a bottle, and for whatever reason, the whole thing just came together in the best possible way. The story's nothing to write home about, but everything else? Fantastic. 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)

And number four is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Though nowhere close to the sales of the Super Mario franchise, The Legend of Zelda is no slouch. As of May 2023, the series has sold over 150 million units worldwide, 31 million of those from Breath of the Wild alone, which is a staggering amount that's significantly higher than any other game in the series up to that point. And for good reason. It was a massive shift in the direction of the Zelda series and a huge gamble, but it paid off in a big way. Those sales numbers alone confirm it, but ignoring that, it's just a fantastic game. The things that make it great, though, are things people probably wouldn't normally associate with a Zelda game. For instance, this physics simulation, to say the very least, is one of the best in the business. Just something as simple as chopping down a log feels good. When the game tasks you with solving puzzles using physics, that's when things get creative. 

In previous Zelda games, you had to play by the game's rules, but in Breath of the Wild, you don't. You can experiment and do things your way. Like this Shrine we're supposed to roll a ball through a maze. We've talked about this one before as well, but normally that's a pretty tedious process if you do it the way they designed it to be done. But with the advanced physics engine, you can just go nuts and flip the entire platform over, and use it to bump the ball into the target in seconds instead. A huge game of ping pong with a weird, weird paddle. The game's filled with little tricks and exploits like that. And that's not even talking about all the crazy and entertaining game-breaking bugs people have discovered. What makes Breath of the Wild so great, and a big part of what makes it so popular though, is it feels like the ultimate sandbox. They give you the tools, but it's up to you to decide how to use them. If you want to brute force a puzzle, you're free to, and it's extremely liberating compared to how so many other open-world games work. 

Grand Theft Auto V

And number three is Grand Theft Auto V. Duh. It's another one of those most popular games of all time. As of May 2023, this game sold over 180 million copies. One game. That's a good 45% of the entire GTA franchise's sales, making it far and away the most popular title in the series. The thing that keeps the game alive and relevant is Grand Theft Auto Online. But for me, what I enjoy is just the little details in GTA V. No other game in the series makes you feel like you're in a living, breathing world like this one. There are so many unusual little interactions and secrets to discover. There are mysterious little stories to find all over the place. Like the infamous Mount Chiliad mystery that never really ended up going anywhere. 

The Infinity Killer mystery is where you find strange clues all over the world. Stuff like this doesn't serve a huge purpose in the game, but it's all fascinating to discover, and it makes the world feel so much bigger. They didn't have to put in a full mine shaft for you to explore, or a dead body of an old celebrity in there, but they did. It's not just the world either. The NPCs are some of the best. One cool little detail is when you switch characters, the other two characters are still out there in the world, and they're NPCs you can find if you go looking. Amusingly enough, if you follow them too much, they'll eventually get mad and punch you in the face. All right then, come on. It's completely unnecessary, but cool details like that keep me coming back to the game. It's about 10 years old at this point, but it's still one of the best open-world games in the business. 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

And number two is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Another duh. And I'll tell you this right now, number one is also a big duh. But during an investor call in May, CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher series has sold over 75 million units worldwide, 50 coming from The Witcher 3. Like, what needs to be said? It's a triumph of both open-world design and storytelling, and it deserves all the many accolades it ever got. It's not a game with as many systems as something like Skyrim. You can't manipulate the world like you could in Skyrim, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have crazy details. The thing that makes The Witcher 3 stand out to me is they include the tiniest details in this massive open-world setting, stuff that in any other game would just be ignored. But it's included at such a level. Like the Raven's call Jennifer uses at the beginning. In any other game, that's a cutscene and has nothing to do with the game. But if you look, it's possible to find the Raven skull in the open world. 

The same thing happens in the King's Gambit quest. Depending on your actions, the queen could be sentenced to death by being chained to rocks. You never actually see this gruesome punishment in action, but it's possible to find the aftermath with the body chained to some random rocks just to subscribe. It's this attention to detail that makes the game stand out. Not just open-world stuff either. The story can change drastically depending on your actions. I'm not just talking about the game here either. I also mean less drastic things like your love interest. In most games, you get locked out of flirting with another character if you do one, but if Geralt promises his heart to both Jennifer and Chris, it'll backfire spectacularly and you lose out on both of them. This isn't funny. The Witcher 3 isn't just big. It's also reactive and lived in a way few open-world games are. It remains one of the best open-world games out there and earned every unit that it sold. 

Red Dead Redemption 2

And finally, at number one, the biggest duh of all time, Red Dead Redemption 2. May not have done GTA numbers, but Rockstar's magnum opus has sold 53 million units worldwide. It's an unjust world. It'd probably be double that because Red Dead 2 is an incredible game in so many ways. The detail put into this world is second to none. All right, Rockstar's masters of the open-world crime game, and they're at their top form here. The story is, of course, fantastic, but the real appeal of the game is the ability to live the outlaw lifestyle and explore the Wild West to see what kind of trouble you can get into. Robbing store owners is fun and sometimes leads to little secret stories like this one, where you can rescue a kid being held against his will. Just what the hell is going on here? He was being a bad little boy, stealing candy from the store. Again, it was all good. I'm not your little boy. You mad son of a-- don't shoot me, please. Just-- just leave us. Let me get these shackles off me, please. Fire spreads surprisingly realistically, and if you shoot an NPC, then the next time they show up, they'll have a bandage on to show you where you shot them. 

No detail is too small for this game. John Marston uses his gun differently from Arthur Morgan, and depending on who you play the artwork in the journal is better or worse. Buildings and railroads get built up over time, and certain seemingly harmless NPC characters can become deadly, like this part where you get drugged by killers at the Aberdeen pig farm. What the hell is that? That's an old Aberdeen home recipe. That one right there is in 1894. Well, it feels like someone's stabbing me in the head. Come on. I thought I had a man here, not a boy. One more, and you and I both will go upstairs and have a lie-down. The game is just littered with little interactions like this. There's obvious stuff like the secret UFO, but there's unnecessary and very easy-to-miss stuff toolike these guys debating the existence of aliens or this drunk guy at the bar who has an entire conversation with himself, which is frankly pretty impressive. You just have to stand there and watch it. Red Dead 2 is a game that's going to stick around for a long time, and for good reason. It's just packed with so many small and big things to do and see. Every time you play it, it feels like you're discovering something new. For a game with such a bleak story, it's surprisingly fun to mess around in. Just getting drunk and fighting is a blast. And Rockstar even included a first-person mode just to make things more immersive. It's pretty obvious why this game sold so many copies. It's just so jam-packed with stuff to do, and every time you play it, you feel like you're discovering something new. 

Outro

That's all for today. Leave us a comment, and let us know what you think.We upload brand-new blog every day of the week. And as always, thank you very much for reading this blog. I'm Zaid Ikram. We'll see you next time right here on Swift Journeys."