Mortal Kombat 11 is the 5th best-selling game in the US for 2019

According to the NPD Group’s retail tracking service, Mortal Kombat 11 is the fifth best-selling game of 2019 in the US. Following in 7th place is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, making both the only fighting games in the top 10.

NetherRealm Studio’s sensational game was released on April 23, while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate arrived the year before on December 7. The fact that their major competition, fighting games like Street Fighter V and Tekken 7 were released a couple of years ago can account for their lower sales and absence from the list. 

Mortal Kombat 11 started the year strong, surpassing the sales of Kingdom Hearts III, the highest selling game of 2019 at the time, in May. The recent iteration of Mortal Kombat is also the second-best-selling game in the franchise, losing first place to the previous game, Mortal Kombat X which sold 11 million units overall. 

The top four games that beat Mortal Kombat 11 to the top are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, NBA 2K20, Madden NFL 20 and Borderlands 3. Consisting of two popular first-person shooters and two sports titles, it would have been quite the achievement if any of them hadn’t made it to the top 4 in the US.

Although Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios haven’t shared the current sales figures for the game, creative director Ed Boon did comment on the NPD stats on Twitter, thanking fans for helping the game reach this milestone.

Even with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate becoming the best selling fighting game in history, the genre failed to make into the top 10 games of the decade. Mario Kart 8 did manage to join the 2019 list as the second Nintendo IP, filling the 10th position. This is also quite a feat for a game that was released a few years ago.

With Final Kombat 2020 taking place from March 7-8 and a new competitive season on the horizon, Mortal Kombat 11 could continue to push its sales dominance in the US this year as well.