As we welcome 2020, stats for 2019 have begun trickling out. The PS Store Top Downloads list for 2019 gives us insight into the year’s most successful games on the digital storefront. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare stole the show, taking the top spot as the most downloaded PS4 game in North America. Call of Duty is typically among the most successful games of each year (if not the most successful, depending on region and other metrics) and it continued that trend in 2019. Other points of note are Minecraft, taking the second spot on the list, NBA 2K19 at number 3, and the mega-popular Grand Theft Auto V at number 4.
You might also notice that NBA 2K19 came out ahead of NBA 2K20, which can partially be attributed to a massive sale last year, wherein 2K19 was discounted to only $2.99. (Editor’s Note: We should also note that 2K19 was available for the full year whereas 2K20 wasn’t released until September.) Nonetheless, it’s noteworthy to see two NBA entries cracking the top five. Minecraft just recently added cross-play support to the PS4 version and could have caused a lot of people to redownload or purchase the game. It saw success elsewhere too, as the year’s most-watched game on YouTube—with over 100 billion views—and the overall best-selling game of all time at over 176 million units sold worldwide.
But what top games list would be complete without the behemoth Grand Theft Auto V? It was 2019’s 4th most downloaded PS4 game, coming out ahead of major new titles like Madden NFL 20 and the aforementioned NBA 2K20. Considering GTA V released in 2013, it’s impressive to see it outperform so many new titles. Overall, the open-world crime adventure has surpassed 115 million copies sold worldwide.
Star Wars Battlefront II also performed well last year, taking the number 8 spot on the list. It has gradually improved since its launch in 2017, giving players lots of free content to enjoy. It was notorious at release for its microtransactions and loot boxes (or as EA once called them: “surprise mechanics“) but has come a long way since then.
Also just cracking into the Top 10 is Days Gone, the only PlayStation exclusive to make the list. It beat out titles like 2019’s Death Stranding and even older 2018 PlayStation exclusives like God of War.
Here are 2019’s most-downloaded PS4 games in North America:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition
- NBA 2K19
- Grand Theft Auto V
- NBA 2K20
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Madden NFL 20
- Star Wars Battlefront II
- Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
- Days Gone
And 2019’s most downloaded PSVR games are as follows:
- Beat Saber
- Superhot VR
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
- Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted
- Job Simulator
- Creed: Rise to Glory
- Borderlands 2 VR
- Firewall Zero Hour
- Blood & Truth
- PlayStation VR Worlds
What do you make of 2019’s most downloaded PS4 games? Did you contribute to any of these download numbers last year?
(Editor’s Note: The PS Store Top Downloads stat is just downloads from the PSN, not necessarily sales. It also doesn’t account for physical copies of the game.)
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
