The Syndicate of leisure software publishers on Wednesday published the Top 20 best-selling video games in France in 2020. If "FIFA 21" officially takes first place in the ranking, it is not necessarily the best-selling.

"Animal Crossing: New Horizons", star of the first confinement, is indeed disputing the unofficial title of the most popular game.

The time has come to take stock for the year 2020 of video games.

The Syndicate of Leisure Software Publishers (SELL) unveiled its annual inventory of the

gaming

market

in France on

Wednesday 

.

All is well for the sector with a turnover of 5.3 billion euros, up 11% over one year.

Some 36 million French people play video games at least occasionally and for the first time in history, there are more female gamers (51%) than male gamers (49%).

The smartphone remains the preferred device for 

gamers

(18 million players), ahead of consoles (16 million) and computers (15 million).

Above all, we know the best-selling in 2020, with some surprises in the ranking ...

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Battle at the top between

FIFA

and

Animal Crossing

Officially, 

FIFA 21 is

the best-selling game of the year with 1.3 million copies.

This figure, which takes into account physical and dematerialized sales, is actually quite low for the football simulation which takes first place in the SELL ranking each year.

Indeed, if we stick to physical sales only, 

FIFA 21 

totals 930,000 games sold.

This is the first time that the famous license does not exceed one million boxes.

Released in September, FIFA 21 suffered from the second lockdown but remains close to its usual level thanks to dematerialized sales.

© SELL

All media combined, it is ahead of THE box of 2020: 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

.

Released in March, the last episode of this "small" Nintendo franchise has experienced an extraordinary boom thanks to lockdowns.

Result: nearly 1.1 million games sold last year, unprecedented for this license.

Note that this figure only takes into account physical sales because Nintendo does not communicate its dematerialized sales.

It should therefore be noted that, on this format, 

Animal Crossing

sold better than 

FIFA 21

.

Globally, Nintendo has specified that 50% of sales come from its online store.

We can therefore risk that

Animal Crossing

is the best-selling game in France in 2020.

GTA V

lasts, containment holds surprises

On the third step of the podium, we find another juggernaut: 

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

.

The last episode of the shooting game license is doing more than well with 660,000 copies sold in two months since it was released in November.

Behind,

Grand Theft Auto V 

creates the surprise.

However, published in 2013, 600,000 units were still sold last year.

France manages to place a production in the Top 5 with 

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

.

Ubisoft's breathtaking Viking epic has won over 565,000 players.

The rest of the Top 20 established by SELL also has some surprises in store.

In the midst of the blockbusters, more or less recent, that are 

Mario Kart 8

, 

The Last of Us Part II

and 

Minecraft

, two "small" games have benefited from a "confinement effect": 

Ring Fit Adventure

and its exercises

de fitness and

51 Worldwide Games

, a collection of dozens of board games in virtual version.

Both exceed 250,000 sales.