You can hate me for saying this, but there’s no way Minecraft shouldn’t be on that chart. If this data is right Minecraft Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025), the sales between 2020 and 2023 would be ~100M.
Their source is this page on the Video Game Sales Wiki, which does say “The following titles are the best-selling games released in the 2020s, as of 2025.”. That’s how I read the headline, but you’re right, it would have helped if Visual Capitalist had clarified by including that bit of info.
I suspect these are the best selling games which released between 2020 and 2025. For instance, Breath of the Wild has sold about 33 million copies, over 10 million more than Tears of the Kingdom but was released in 2017.
The sentence itself, could be taken either way, but any reasonably intelligent gamer would be able see the list has only games released since 2020 and know which way to take the sentence.
There’s nothing about this that says “Best-Selling Video Games Released Between 2020-2025”.
And, the tagline “Where Data Tells The Story” really means they should be explaining exactly the data they are presenting. Accurate framing is every bit as important as the information… You can’t assume that two people looking at the same piece of information are going to interpret it the same way unless it is properly framed and presented.
Oh, I get it…but my point is not everyone will get it, and the information is inaccurate. Sorry you can’t understand that data presentation isn’t just about gamers…it’s a much larger issue these days… And this is just a really good example of it being handled badly.
I had no idea Animal Crossing was that high. It’s a stupid game with no point to it… and I can’t help but play it 2-3 times a week, even if it’s just to check in. It definitely has its moments. I gave my wife shit for paying $60 for it, and I played it daily for most of the year since we got it. (She dropped it after a couple weeks, which tanked my progress since only the first player can advance the island. We started over with me starting an island and she played here and there. Then she quit, and I wanted to start over again… and she hasn’t used the new island yet, and I’ve had it for over 7 months now. It will be my forever island.)
And Hogwarts over everything but Animal Crossing? That’s kinda wild. I did not think that game was that big. Currently playing it, it was recently given away on Epic Game Store, I wonder if giveaways count (probably not). It’s basically the Harry Potter simulator we’ve all wanted for the last 20-25 years. Whenever those books and movies started coming out. Except it doesn’t have Harry Potter, or anything from the series but the places.
Well. I have about 1500 hours in AC and around 160 in Hogwarts. So those are probably both my most game hours.
Next is probably outlast trials. ~100 ish
I have an eclectic taste in games.
AC is a cozy designer game. And you can play with friends. It was the best game for a pandemic.
Not just a girls game either. Half my guy friends played the hell out of that game.
I also was a AC new leaf fan so I was so ready for new horizons.
Its not that different than games like Minecraft. I think it appeals to people in similar ways.
As for Hogwarts.
For a lot of us millennials who grew up with Harry Potter ,the game felt like being in a Harry Potter movie. It was a beautiful game at 4k. Like I couldn’t believe how beautiful every square inch of the castle was. I spent a lot of time exploring.
I did literally every single side quest and found all the demiguise statues. And all the items. And all the animals. All the mounts.
I do believe there was 60-80 side quests ? Something like that.
That’s how I spent 160 in the game.
I get that a lot of people don’t want Rowling to get any money as she is anti trans.
Rowling had nothing to do with the game aside from owning the IP.
No input or anything on the game.
I’m not here to defend her.
I will say though that a very large portion of things we love and that bring us happiness are tainted.
And we have to decide for ourselves if we can separate the art from the artist or not. And it’s a personal decision.
Examples.
Walt Disney was antisemitic.
Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in wonderland was a pedo.
Bill gates was a visitor of Epstein’s Island.(Creator of windows)
A shit ton of actors and musicians are pro Israel Zionist.
A lot of sports players have domestic battery charges.
Alfred Hitchcock was a bad guy (me too situations).
Speaking of. Harvey Weinstein was part of many many movie productions.
I’m not excusing any of these people nor their behaviors.
What I’m saying is. We all get to choose if we want to separate people from their work.
And some will and some won’t.
And I don’t think judging others just because they bought the Hogwarts game and love the Hp universe, is fair.
I’m certainly not ok with her statements on trans topics.
However I’m not giving up something I love. I can separate her from it.
You too, likely still enjoy media by a shitty garbage human.
I think the reason it’s sold so many copies is because it’s been on perpetual sale everywhere. People were majorly against buying it and that dampened some people’s interest initially but when the game is $5, a lot of people will buy it just because it’s cheap.
Everyone is allowed their own opinion. So I’m not going to say you are wrong for disliking it, but I completely disagree.
I consider Super Mario World to be the best in the franchise, and Wonder was probably better. I loved the game. I found most of the “New Super Mario” (The 2D series) games bad, or at least missing the magic of the first games with tight controls and well thought out levels. Wonder was a return to that.
I consider the best “New” to be Wii by far. Good challenge, good level diversity, the right kind of chaotic fun in multiplayer.
The first NSMB was still very basic, and U was boring and uninspired. New Super Luigi U was the best part of U, at least it tried something, but too little too late.
NSMB2 felt like the worst example of “we need a Mario game now, pile up random shit until we have one”. I mean, they tried to have a gimmick in this one, putting it everywhere in theming and it’s… Collecting more coins than usual? And even then they don’t do anything with it.
By the way, of course everyone is allowed their opinion, but… 30 years later, still team SMB3.
I liked Wonder. It’s a decent attempt at refreshing 2D Mario, and some of the level gimmicks were quite fun. I think they’ve tried to recapture the effect of “every level a new idea” in 3D World, though I’d agree they were not as succesful in this one.
It’s a lot better than NSMB U IMO, that one was incredibly bland (especially after NSMB Wii, that one was great).
Nsmb wii was brilliant, really enjoyed it. The new one had fine parts but was just too disjointed and became tedious and zany which I wouldnt usually tiento Mario
CDPR spent the time fixing CP2077 and then released a killer DLC, putting the entire game on sale a ton along the way. They also listened and reconfigured entirely some of the clunky parts of gameplay/RPG elements.
To be fair, Hogwarts Legacy is a very good game, I started playing yesterday and the atmosphere of the movies is perfectly captured! I did expect a cash grab, but I was totally wrong.
For now there’s nothing of the sort, but I’m only a few hours in. Could it be too good to be true…?
Well, let’s see. It is a AAA game after all…
Edit: No, the game really is fun. 20 hours in, and I must say even if it were only exploring Hogwarts it would be quite worth my time. The music and atmosphere are really neat.
Edit2: I can’t believe it’s a AAA title. There is no ingame shop, everything is obtainable just by playing. The world is beautiful and full of interesting stuff to find. And best of all: it’s fun! The cash grab part is just a lie. If you have an agenda, use arguments, not lies.
If you ranked games by revenue, none of these games would be on the list. Candy Crush and Clash of Clans would fire their CEO if their revenue was pathetic as Activision.
Well at least one of those Switch Sports sales was a double buy by me because somehow the first digital copy I purchased, and played many times and put maybe 20 hours into golf, just decided to up and pretend I never bought it. One day it just told me I needed to buy it and my trial period was over. Despite having already bought it years before. I couldn’t find the proof of purchase email even though I had one for every other game. I emailed Nintendo, they said they had no record of my purchase even though they could clearly see dozens of hours played across multiple sports. I also have a video of my kid playing it like a year before this happened. I eventually just re bought it. It was honestly one of the weirdest and unsettling experiences of my life. Like a portion of my life was deleted and only I remembered. Even my brother was doubting me.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was pretty good - aside from the mega-thirsty player-sexual NPCs - but I’m replaying the originals now and enjoying them more. Didn’t play a single other game in this list!
My gpu that I bought in 2021 came with a copy of cod cold war. And EVGA or Nvidia probably paid for that, I just didn’t.
I’m not really into cod games and never would have bought it, but now the outbreak zombie mode is something that my partner and some friends just do sometimes to hang out and talk online. We still haven’t beaten the easter egg boss though because of computer crashes and that if you drop from online mode you stupidly lose everything. Probably to avoid cheating.
That issue sucks, but the gamemode is fun. You just run around in a giant map doing challenges and leveling up weapons until you’re ready to push to the next level. Very self paced and potentially mindless. Great for talking over or relaxing.
Unfortunately, the cod player base is really split between the varying gamemodes, and each gamemode’s fanbase thinks they’re the most important one and that all the other gamemodes are bad and don’t matter.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you’re submitting before posting to see if it’s already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don’t share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don’t want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
Elden Ring being 3rd and Baldur’s Gate 3 being tied for last is quite a surprise.
You can hate me for saying this, but there’s no way Minecraft shouldn’t be on that chart. If this data is right Minecraft Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025), the sales between 2020 and 2023 would be ~100M.
Their source is this page on the Video Game Sales Wiki, which does say “The following titles are the best-selling games released in the 2020s, as of 2025.”. That’s how I read the headline, but you’re right, it would have helped if Visual Capitalist had clarified by including that bit of info.
Yup, and the article (Ranked: The Best-Selling Video Games Since 2020} that was published using that data mis-represents it:
IMO - I find the “Visual Capitalist” site to be a questionable source of information… There are quite a few red flags when it comes to that site.
I suspect these are the best selling games which released between 2020 and 2025. For instance, Breath of the Wild has sold about 33 million copies, over 10 million more than Tears of the Kingdom but was released in 2017.
If that’s what they are counting, then the graphic should say that…
The sentence itself, could be taken either way, but any reasonably intelligent gamer would be able see the list has only games released since 2020 and know which way to take the sentence.
There’s nothing about this that says “Best-Selling Video Games Released Between 2020-2025”.
And, the tagline “Where Data Tells The Story” really means they should be explaining exactly the data they are presenting. Accurate framing is every bit as important as the information… You can’t assume that two people looking at the same piece of information are going to interpret it the same way unless it is properly framed and presented.
Sorry you couldn’t put two and two together in the gamers instance.
Oh, I get it…but my point is not everyone will get it, and the information is inaccurate. Sorry you can’t understand that data presentation isn’t just about gamers…it’s a much larger issue these days… And this is just a really good example of it being handled badly.
You’re taking this instance of gamers far too seriously.
I had no idea Animal Crossing was that high. It’s a stupid game with no point to it… and I can’t help but play it 2-3 times a week, even if it’s just to check in. It definitely has its moments. I gave my wife shit for paying $60 for it, and I played it daily for most of the year since we got it. (She dropped it after a couple weeks, which tanked my progress since only the first player can advance the island. We started over with me starting an island and she played here and there. Then she quit, and I wanted to start over again… and she hasn’t used the new island yet, and I’ve had it for over 7 months now. It will be my forever island.)
And Hogwarts over everything but Animal Crossing? That’s kinda wild. I did not think that game was that big. Currently playing it, it was recently given away on Epic Game Store, I wonder if giveaways count (probably not). It’s basically the Harry Potter simulator we’ve all wanted for the last 20-25 years. Whenever those books and movies started coming out. Except it doesn’t have Harry Potter, or anything from the series but the places.
Well. I have about 1500 hours in AC and around 160 in Hogwarts. So those are probably both my most game hours.
Next is probably outlast trials. ~100 ish I have an eclectic taste in games.
AC is a cozy designer game. And you can play with friends. It was the best game for a pandemic. Not just a girls game either. Half my guy friends played the hell out of that game. I also was a AC new leaf fan so I was so ready for new horizons.
Its not that different than games like Minecraft. I think it appeals to people in similar ways.
As for Hogwarts.
For a lot of us millennials who grew up with Harry Potter ,the game felt like being in a Harry Potter movie. It was a beautiful game at 4k. Like I couldn’t believe how beautiful every square inch of the castle was. I spent a lot of time exploring. I did literally every single side quest and found all the demiguise statues. And all the items. And all the animals. All the mounts.
I do believe there was 60-80 side quests ? Something like that.
That’s how I spent 160 in the game.
I get that a lot of people don’t want Rowling to get any money as she is anti trans.
Rowling had nothing to do with the game aside from owning the IP.
No input or anything on the game.
I’m not here to defend her.
I will say though that a very large portion of things we love and that bring us happiness are tainted.
And we have to decide for ourselves if we can separate the art from the artist or not. And it’s a personal decision.
Examples. Walt Disney was antisemitic.
Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in wonderland was a pedo. Bill gates was a visitor of Epstein’s Island.(Creator of windows) A shit ton of actors and musicians are pro Israel Zionist. A lot of sports players have domestic battery charges. Alfred Hitchcock was a bad guy (me too situations).
Speaking of. Harvey Weinstein was part of many many movie productions.
I’m not excusing any of these people nor their behaviors.
What I’m saying is. We all get to choose if we want to separate people from their work.
And some will and some won’t.
And I don’t think judging others just because they bought the Hogwarts game and love the Hp universe, is fair.
I’m certainly not ok with her statements on trans topics.
However I’m not giving up something I love. I can separate her from it.
You too, likely still enjoy media by a shitty garbage human.
Cause there are a lot of them.
Surprised at no minecraft, has it peaked?
Switch Sports was quite bad tbh. I’ll rather play the original Wii game.
I also was shocked how little content the game had on release.
Super Mario Bros Wonder sucked. I hope they don’t take it’s sales as a direction on the franchise because it is my least favourite.
Also how is Hogwarts so high and 90% off, must have had a huge fall off.
I think the reason it’s sold so many copies is because it’s been on perpetual sale everywhere. People were majorly against buying it and that dampened some people’s interest initially but when the game is $5, a lot of people will buy it just because it’s cheap.
Hell. Epic games gave it away for free like a week ago.
Everyone is allowed their own opinion. So I’m not going to say you are wrong for disliking it, but I completely disagree.
I consider Super Mario World to be the best in the franchise, and Wonder was probably better. I loved the game. I found most of the “New Super Mario” (The 2D series) games bad, or at least missing the magic of the first games with tight controls and well thought out levels. Wonder was a return to that.
I consider the best “New” to be Wii by far. Good challenge, good level diversity, the right kind of chaotic fun in multiplayer.
The first NSMB was still very basic, and U was boring and uninspired. New Super Luigi U was the best part of U, at least it tried something, but too little too late.
NSMB2 felt like the worst example of “we need a Mario game now, pile up random shit until we have one”. I mean, they tried to have a gimmick in this one, putting it everywhere in theming and it’s… Collecting more coins than usual? And even then they don’t do anything with it.
By the way, of course everyone is allowed their opinion, but… 30 years later, still team SMB3.
I liked Wonder. It’s a decent attempt at refreshing 2D Mario, and some of the level gimmicks were quite fun. I think they’ve tried to recapture the effect of “every level a new idea” in 3D World, though I’d agree they were not as succesful in this one.
It’s a lot better than NSMB U IMO, that one was incredibly bland (especially after NSMB Wii, that one was great).
Nsmb wii was brilliant, really enjoyed it. The new one had fine parts but was just too disjointed and became tedious and zany which I wouldnt usually tiento Mario
It’s crazy that I only own two of these games and they couldn’t be more different. Animal Crossing and Cyberpunk 2077.
I haven’t bought a single one of these. I’ve played It Takes Two with my brother over Parsec though. Where can I collect my hipster certificate?
Animal Crossing was a birthday gift. And technically Stadia refunded my money for Cyberpunk.
My backlog is well over 5 years out. I haven’t gotten up to games from 2020+ yet. Lol.
I’m currently playing “Red Dead Redemption 2” , and “Psychonauts”.
I’m sad Howard’s legacy sold so well.
Also Cyberpunk sold better than I expected given the launch.
CDPR spent the time fixing CP2077 and then released a killer DLC, putting the entire game on sale a ton along the way. They also listened and reconfigured entirely some of the clunky parts of gameplay/RPG elements.
To be fair, Hogwarts Legacy is a very good game, I started playing yesterday and the atmosphere of the movies is perfectly captured! I did expect a cash grab, but I was totally wrong.
As someone who has beaten the game. The cash grab part is just after your first day and the “open world” starts up.
It’s not a bad game, but it gets pretty bland and generic once the main loop of ditching school starts.
For now there’s nothing of the sort, but I’m only a few hours in. Could it be too good to be true…?
Well, let’s see. It is a AAA game after all…
Edit: No, the game really is fun. 20 hours in, and I must say even if it were only exploring Hogwarts it would be quite worth my time. The music and atmosphere are really neat.
Edit2: I can’t believe it’s a AAA title. There is no ingame shop, everything is obtainable just by playing. The world is beautiful and full of interesting stuff to find. And best of all: it’s fun! The cash grab part is just a lie. If you have an agenda, use arguments, not lies.
(deleted content)
I played it at release, and I had a negligible number of technical issues on PC. Not everyone had a bad time with it back then.
Same here. Old PC (though quite good for the time), no issues whatsoever.
Idk, I’ve tried to play it at least half a dozen times since it was “fixed” and it still just seems rushed and unfinished, just less buggy now.
i’m wondering if the boycott had adverse effects and promoted the game in more gamer-centric spaces that otherwise wouldn’t have cared that much
obviously it’s a harry potter game, it was always gonna sell well. but 2nd best selling game of the last 5 years??? ouch
If you ranked games by revenue, none of these games would be on the list. Candy Crush and Clash of Clans would fire their CEO if their revenue was pathetic as Activision.
If you ranked by budget, none of them would be on the list either. Monopoly Go would just take up rank 1-20.
Well at least one of those Switch Sports sales was a double buy by me because somehow the first digital copy I purchased, and played many times and put maybe 20 hours into golf, just decided to up and pretend I never bought it. One day it just told me I needed to buy it and my trial period was over. Despite having already bought it years before. I couldn’t find the proof of purchase email even though I had one for every other game. I emailed Nintendo, they said they had no record of my purchase even though they could clearly see dozens of hours played across multiple sports. I also have a video of my kid playing it like a year before this happened. I eventually just re bought it. It was honestly one of the weirdest and unsettling experiences of my life. Like a portion of my life was deleted and only I remembered. Even my brother was doubting me.
Pretty much all single player games guess we best roll another overwatch clone
Since the graphic is counting sales in units sold I guess free to download “live services” wouldn’t really appear.
Would be interesting to see the same counting revenues.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was pretty good - aside from the mega-thirsty player-sexual NPCs - but I’m replaying the originals now and enjoying them more. Didn’t play a single other game in this list!
The .0 here just seems incorrect. They only appear have the first significant digit.
Yeah, Helldivers 2 made it on the list!
For Super Earth! o7
It’s a disgrace seeing 2 COD games in the top 5
My gpu that I bought in 2021 came with a copy of cod cold war. And EVGA or Nvidia probably paid for that, I just didn’t.
I’m not really into cod games and never would have bought it, but now the outbreak zombie mode is something that my partner and some friends just do sometimes to hang out and talk online. We still haven’t beaten the easter egg boss though because of computer crashes and that if you drop from online mode you stupidly lose everything. Probably to avoid cheating.
That issue sucks, but the gamemode is fun. You just run around in a giant map doing challenges and leveling up weapons until you’re ready to push to the next level. Very self paced and potentially mindless. Great for talking over or relaxing.
Unfortunately, the cod player base is really split between the varying gamemodes, and each gamemode’s fanbase thinks they’re the most important one and that all the other gamemodes are bad and don’t matter.