NPD: Nintendo likely to end the year as best-selling publisher

Following E3 2019's annual deluge of game announcements, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella has outlined his predictions for game sales in 2019, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as the year's top seller and Nintendo as best-selling publisher.

In a blog post, Piscatella outlined his takeaways from the show's major exhibitors. Despite E3's seemingly heavy focus on streaming and subscription services, he feels the audience was left with more questions than answers, and doesn't see Stadia or Project xCloud making a significant market impact in 2019. However, he predicts xCloud will have an impact on ongoing Xbox hardware sales and Game Pass subscriptions.

"Nintendo Switch is the most important piece of video game hardware in the market right now," he says of Nintendo's presentation, saying he expects its hardware sales to continue in strength and for Nintendo to wrap up the year as the best-selling publisher, with sales driven largely by Pokemon Sword & Shield (which launch in November).

Overall, Piscatella sees a stronger-than-usual line-up for the "transition year" between console generations, though with no major end-of-year release akin to 2018's Red Dead Redemption 2, a number of other titles could slip into the top 10 unexpectedly.

Here are NPD's current predictions for the top ten software titles for 2019:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare^
2. NBA 2K20
3. Madden NFL 20^
4. Borderlands 3^
5. Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order^
6. Mortal Kombat 11
7. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint^
8. Death Stranding
9. Kingdom Hearts III
10. Super Mario Maker 2*

^Digital not included

*PC Digital not included