Call of Duty: Black Ops III Tops 2015 Sales

Activision's one-month-old Call of Duty: Black Ops III topped the video game charts for the month of December, according to the NPD Group.

But it was also No. 1 for the year, the seventh consecutive year a Call of Duty title took the crown in North America.

Also topping the charts in 2015 were Madden NFL 16, Fallout 4, Star Wars Battlefront, and Grand Theft Auto V, followed by NBA 2K16, Minecraft, FIFA 16, Mortal Kombat X, and (surprise!) Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

"Each year, we are reminded of the passion of the Call of Duty community," Activision Communications Manager Scott Lowe wrote in a blog post. "From the excitement we saw at reveal to the massive turnout for the multiplayer beta and at launch in November—2015 was an incredible year for Call of Duty: Black Ops III and the team at Treyarch."

The latest installment helped boost total life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise to more than 250 million units, the company said.

"However, Black Ops III was just the beginning," Lowe teased. DLC season begins Feb. 2, with Black Ops III Awakening, launching first for PlayStation 4. The add-on introduces the next chapter of Treyarch's Zombies saga, as well as four new multiplayer maps.

Altogether, video game sales across physical software, hardware, and accessories were flat compared to 2014, NPD said, adding that December saw a 1.5 percent decrease on sales.

It was a banner year for the Sony PlayStation 4, though, which became the top-selling console of 2015. Rival Microsoft, however, was not far behind: December marked the Xbox One's "best month yet" for sales in the U.S., Redmond told GameSpot.

:story: PC Magazine