Top-selling video games of 2010: 'Black Ops,' 'Madden,' 'Halo: Reach'

Call of Duty: Black Ops was North America's best selling video game of 2010, while combined sales of Madden NFL 11 saw the sports game rise to second, and Xbox 360 exclusive Halo: Reach was third. Data collectors NPD decided to combine each game's sales across different consoles for the 2010 chart instead of counting each console version separately, and broke Nintendo's hold on the top twenty in the process. The switch may have contributed in part to Madden NFL's dramatic improvement. In 2009, the sports franchise reached 11th by virtue of Xbox 360 sales alone; in 2010, its second-place performance also included PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable versions. However, Halo: Reach made it all the way up to third off the back of Xbox 360 sales alone, becoming the year's best selling single-format game and bettering Halo: ODST's 9th from 2009. New Super Mario Bros Wii fell two places to fourth while its DS equivalent, which was first released in 2006, dropped four to sixteenth. Wii Fit Plus, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Sports Resort also held on to make repeat appearances, as did Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - the only non-Nintendo title to do so. Battlefield 3 will need to make more of an impact than Bad Company 2 did in order to dent Call of Duty's supremacy. Bullish statements from Electronic Arts underline their intention to do just that. The two series were separated by only two places on 2010's PC games chart, where StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was king. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was 2nd (WoW titles accounted for six of the Top 20), and The Sims 3 was 3rd (another six for the series in the Top 20). Black Ops came in at 9th, and Bad Company 2 at 11th. Top 20 Video Games of 2010 by units sold 01. Call of Duty Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, DS) 02. Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) 03. Halo: Reach (360) 04. New Super Mario Bros. Wii 05. Red Dead Redemption (360, PS3) 06. Wii Fit Plus 07. Just Dance 2 (Wii) 08. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360, PS3) 09. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (360, PS3) 10. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) 11. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360, PS3) 12. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) 13. Pokémon SoulSilver (DS) 14. Mario Kart Wii 15. Just Dance (Wii) 16. New Super Mario Bros DS 17. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) 18. Wii Sports Resort 19. Fallout: New Vegas (360 PS3) 20. Final Fantasy XIII (360 PS3) Source: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service