A newly compiled chart tracking the best-selling games released between 2020 and 2025 reveals Animal Crossing: New Horizons as the undisputed champion of the period. The Nintendo Switch exclusive moved approximately 47.8 million units, pulling nearly 20 million ahead of its closest competitors.
The chart aggregated official publisher sales figures where available and used third-party estimates for titles without public disclosures. Only games released within the five-year window qualified, with a practical cutoff landing around 15 million units sold.
Behind Animal Crossing, the rankings tighten considerably. Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 both reached roughly 30 million units. Hogwarts Legacy sits in the high-20s to 30 million range. Phasmophobia, the indie horror co-op game, claimed an impressive 25 million units. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet landed in the mid-20 millions, while The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom crossed 20 million.
It Takes Two rounds out the heavy hitters at 23 million copies, per a March 2025 Washington Post report. The co-op-only game from Hazelight Studios beat initial expectations by a massive margin. Nintendo Switch Sports and Monster Hunter Rise also cleared the 15 million threshold.
Animal Crossing‘s dominance traces directly to its March 2020 launch. The game dropped at the start of COVID lockdowns, when millions found themselves stuck at home searching for digital escapes. The timing proved perfect for a cozy island-building sim designed around daily routines and social visits.
Elden Ring‘s 30 million represents a watershed moment for notoriously difficult games. FromSoftware’s sprawling open-world title achieved mainstream success despite its punishing difficulty curve. Cyberpunk 2077 climbed to 30 million after a rocky launch, with the 2023 Phantom Liberty expansion and massive 2.0 update rescuing CD Projekt’s reputation.
Phasmophobia stands out as the period’s biggest indie success story. The ghost-hunting game started as a solo developer project in 2020 early access and ballooned into a streaming phenomenon. Its 25 million units translate to hundreds of millions in revenue for the small team.
When the numbers don’t add up
The chart’s methodology got people arguing over missing entries. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe didn’t qualify because it launched in 2017, though calculations show it sold approximately 44 million additional units during 2020–2025 alone. That would place it second overall if included.
Recent Call of Duty entries—Modern Warfare II (2022), Modern Warfare III (2023), and Black Ops 6 (2024)—likely posted massive numbers but lack official sales disclosures. Activision switched to highlighting player counts and revenue metrics instead of unit sales, making direct comparisons impossible.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus narrowly missed the cut at 14.83 million as of March 2023, with no updated figures released since. Game Pass titles like Forza Horizon 5 tout 40+ million players but report lower unit sales figures due to subscription access.
The data underscores how Nintendo’s quarterly reporting gives its titles clearer visibility in sales rankings. Third-party publishers increasingly guard exact figures or substitute metrics like monthly active users. The result is an imperfect snapshot that favors transparency over secrecy.
