The year 2015 saw releases of numerous video games as well as a follow-up to Nintendo's portable 3DS console, the New Nintendo 3DS. Top-rated games originally released in 2015 included Madden NFL 16, NBA 2K16, NBA Live 16, WWE 2K16, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Bloodborne, Undertale, and Fallout 4. Sales of video games in 2015 reached $61 billion, according to analysis firm SuperData, an 8% increase from 2014. Of this, the largest sector was in computer game sales and subscription services, accounting for $32 billion. Mobile games revenues were at $25.1 billion, a 10% increase from 2014. Digital sales on consoles made up the remaining $4 billion.
Series with new installments in 2015 include Anno, Assassin's Creed, Batman: Arkham, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Disgaea, Dirt, Fallout, Fatal Frame, Five Nights at Freddy's, Forza Motorsport, Guitar Hero, Halo, Heroes of Might and Magic, Hotline Miami, Just Cause, King's Quest, Kirby, Magicka, Mario Party, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Mario & Luigi, Metal Gear, Minecraft, Mortal Kombat, Need for Speed, OlliOlli, Resident Evil, Rock Band, StarCraft, Star Wars: Battlefront, Tales, The Witcher, Tomb Raider, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Total War, Toy Soldiers, Xenoblade, Yakuza and Yoshi.
In addition, 2015 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Bloodborne, Dying Light, Evolve, Life Is Strange, Ori, Rocket League, Splatoon, Undertale, and Until Dawn.
Financial performance In the United States, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the NPD Group estimated total video game market revenues at $23.5 billion, a 5% increase from 2014. Of this, the total software market was $16.5 billion, with the NPD Group estimating retail sales subset at $13.1 billion. The ESA reported that there were 2,457 companies in the United States involved in developing or publishing video games that directly supported 65,678 workers (37,122 in developing, 28,556 in publishing) with about another 154,000 indirectly supporting the industry, such as through contracting or video game journalism. The total contribution to the US's gross national product from the industry was $11.7 billion.
In the United Kingdom, the total video game market was valued at nearly 4.2 billion, according to figures from Ukie and MCV. The largest segments were in digital software (£1.2 billion) and mobile games (£664 million), while sales of consoles dropped to £689 million.
Highest-grossing games The following were 2015's top ten highest-grossing video games in terms of worldwide revenue (including physical sales, digital purchases, subscriptions, microtransactions, free-to-play and pay-to-play) across all platforms (including mobile, PC and console platforms). Three of the top ten highest-grossing games are published or owned by Tencent, including the top-grossing title League of Legends.
Rank Game Revenue Publisher(s) Genre Platform(s) Business model 1 League of Legends $1,628,000,000 Riot Games / Tencent MOBA PC Free-to-play 2 Monster Strike $1,557,800,000 Mixi Physics Mobile Free-to-play 3 Clash of Clans $1,345,000,000 Supercell Strategy Mobile Free-to-play 4 Puzzle & Dragons GungHo Online Entertainment Puzzle Mobile Free-to-play 5 Crossfire $1,110,000,000 Smilegate / Tencent FPS PC Free-to-play 6 Dungeon Fighter Online $1,052,000,000 Neople / Tencent Beat 'em up 7 Call of Duty: Black Ops III $1,000,000,000 Activision FPS PC, Console Buy-to-play 8 World of Warcraft $814,000,000 Blizzard Entertainment MMORPG PC Subscription 9 Game of War: Fire Age $799,000,000 MZ Strategy Mobile Free-to-play 10 Fallout 4 $750,000,000 Bethesda Softworks Action RPG PC, Console Buy-to-play
Best-selling games Rank Japan (retail) United Kingdom (retail) United States (retail) Steam (digital) 1Monster Hunter X FIFA 16Call of Duty: Black Ops III Grand Theft Auto V 2Yo-kai Watch Blasters Call of Duty: Black Ops IIIMadden NFL 16 Fallout 4 3Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer Fallout 4Fallout 4 Ark: Survival Evolved 4Splatoon Star Wars BattlefrontStar Wars Battlefront Rocket League 5Dragon Quest VIII Grand Theft Auto VGrand Theft Auto V Just Survive 6Fire Emblem Fates Batman: Arkham KnightNBA 2K16 Cities: Skylines 7Rhythm Heaven: The Best Plus FIFA 15Minecraft Besiege 8Super Mario Maker Call of Duty: Advanced WarfareFIFA 16 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 9Dragon Quest Heroes Assassin's Creed SyndicateMortal Kombat X Dying Light 10The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D Lego Jurassic WorldCall of Duty: Advanced Warfare Life Is Strange
Top-rated games
Critically acclaimed titles Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
+ 2015 games and expansions scoring at least 90/100 (MC) or 90% (GR) Game Publisher Release Date Platform MC score GR score Grand Theft Auto V Rockstar Games April 14, 2015 WIN 96/100 95.07% Out of the Park Baseball 16 Out of the Park Developments March 23, 2015 WIN 91/100 95.25% Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Konami September 1, 2015 XBO 95/100 90.38% Journey Sony Computer Entertainment July 21, 2015 PS4 92/100 94.8% Undertale Toby Fox September 15, 2015 WIN 92/100 94.11% Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition Larian Studios October 27, 2015 WIN 94/100 90% Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack 2 Nintendo April 23, 2015 WiiU 90/100 93.5% The Swapper Curve Studios June 5, 2015 XBO 92/100 93.33% The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt CD Projekt May 19, 2015 WIN 93/100 92.11% Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Konami September 1, 2015 PS4 93/100 91.59% Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Konami September 1, 2015 WIN 91/100 92.75% The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt CD Projekt May 19, 2015 PS4 92/100 92.23% Bloodborne Sony Computer Entertainment March 24, 2015 PS4 92/100 90.66% Shovel Knight Yacht Club Games April 21, 2015 PSV 92/100 90.4% The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone CD Projekt October 13, 2015 PS4 90/100 91.19% The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt CD Projekt May 19, 2015 XBO 91/100 90.7% Shovel Knight Yacht Club Games April 21, 2015 PS4 90/100 91% The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone CD Projekt October 13, 2015 XBO 90/100 91% 80 Days Inkle September 29, 2015 WIN 84/100 91% Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows Yacht Club Games September 17, 2015 WIN 89/100 90.5% Nuclear Throne Vlambeer December 5, 2015 WIN 88/100 90.43% The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D Nintendo February 13, 2015 3DS 89/100 90.39% Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 5 – The Vault of the Traveler Telltale Games October 20, 2015 PS4 90/100 89.89% Broken Age Double Fine Productions April 28, 2015 PSV 90/100 89% Roche Fusion amulware January 23, 2015 WIN 85/100 90% Odallus: The Dark Call Joymasher July 15, 2015 WIN 80/100 90%
Major awards Category/Organization 33rd Golden Joystick Awards The Game Awards 2015 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards 16th Game Developers Choice Awards 12th British Academy Games Awards Game of the Year The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Fallout 4 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Fallout 4 Independent / Debut Kerbal Space ProgramRocket League Ori and the Blind Forest Her Story Mobile/Handheld Mobile Fallout Shelter Lara Croft Go Fallout Shelter Her Story Handheld Helldivers Innovation First-person mode in Grand Theft Auto V colspan="2" Her Story Artistic Achievement Animation The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Ori and the Blind Forest Ori and the Blind Forest Ori and the Blind Forest Art Direction Ori and the Blind Forest Audio Music Ori and the Blind Forest Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Ori and the Blind Forest Crypt of the NecroDancer Everybody's Gone to the Rapture Sound Design Star Wars Battlefront Everybody's Gone to the Rapture Character or Performance Ashly Burch as Chloe PriceLife Is Strange Viva Seifert as Hannah SmithHer Story Lara CroftRise of the Tomb Raider Merle Dandridge as Kate CollinsEverybody's Gone to the Rapture Game Directionor Design Game Design colspan="2" rowspan="2" The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Rocket League Bloodborne Game Direction Fallout 4 Narrative The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Her Story The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Her Story Life Is Strange Technical Achievement colspan="2" The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt colspan="2" Multiplayer/Online Grand Theft Auto Online Splatoon Rocket League Rocket League Action/Shooter Splatoon Star Wars Battlefront rowspan="2" colspan="3" Adventure Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Family Splatoon Super Mario Maker Rocket League Fighting Mortal Kombat X rowspan="2" colspan="3" Role-Playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Fallout 4 Sports/Racing Sports rowspan="2" Rocket League Rocket League rowspan="2" Rocket League Racing Forza Motorsport 6 Strategy/Simulation colspan="2" Heroes of the Storm colspan="3" Special Award Lifetime Achievement Industry Icon Award Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award BAFTA Special BAFTA Fellowship Satoru Iwata Brett Sperry and Louis Castle Hideo Kojima Todd Howard Amy Hennig John Carmack
Events
{| class="wikitable sortable col-1center" |- ! Date ! Event ! class="unsortable" | |- | January 7 | Zombie Studios, the creator of the Spec Ops series, was shut down.
| January 23–25 | PAX South 2015 held in Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center
| January 30 | Sega continues reduction of western businesses and focus on digital that began in 2012.
| February 3 | Sony sold Sony Online Entertainment to Columbus Nova. The company was renamed into Daybreak Game Company.
| February 3 | Video game critic Joystiq was shut down by AOL.
| February 19 | Sega Networks, a subsidiary of Sega, acquired Demiurge Studios.
| February 20 | tri-Ace, the developer of Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile, was acquired by Nepro Japan.
| February 25 | The website version of video game critic Computer and Video Games was merged into GamesRadar+ by Future plc.
| March 2–6 | Game Developers Conference 2015 held in San Francisco, California.
| March 2–6 | Independent Games Festival held in San Francisco, California.
| March 4 | Electronic Arts shut down the headquarters of Maxis in Emeryville, which has created franchises such as SimCity and Spore.
| March 6–8 | PAX East 2015 held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
| March 12–14 | EGX Rezzed 2015 held at the Tobacco Dock, London.
| March 17 | Nintendo Co. Ltd. announced their affiliation with Japanese mobile game developer DeNA and teased the NX (the then-unnamed Nintendo Switch) as a new platform.
| March 23 | Raven Software celebrated its 25th anniversary.
| April 1 | Bandai Namco Games was renamed into Bandai Namco Entertainment.
| April 15 | 2K Australia, the developer of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was shut down by Take-Two Interactive.
| April 17 | Phil Harrison, the World Wide Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Studios departed from Microsoft.
| April 20 | Matthew Armstrong, creator of the Borderlands series, left Gearbox Software.
| April 27 | Following the cancellation of Silent Hills, Konami delisted itself from the New York Stock Exchange.
| April 30 | Services of OnLive were discontinued as the asset was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment.
| May 4 | Spark Unlimited, the developer of Lost Planet 3 and Call of Duty: Finest Hour was shut down.
| May 22 | BioWare celebrated its 20th anniversary.
| May 22 |The Pac-Man franchise celebrated its 35th anniversary in Japan.
| May 26 | Oskari Häkkinen, head of franchise development of Remedy Entertainment, left Remedy.
| June 3 | CEO of Remedy Entertainment, Matias Myllyrinne, departed from the company for Wargaming.
| June 8 | Paul Sams replaced Ru Weerasuriya as Ready at Dawn's CEO.
| June 9 | Chris Avellone, co-founder of Obsidian Entertainment, departed from the company.
| June 11 | Housemarque celebrated its 20th anniversary.
| June 12 | Arc System Works purchased the rights to develop video games for the Double Dragon, River City Ransom, and Super Dodge Ball series from the now-defunct Technos.
| June 16–18 | E3 2015 held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
| June 16 | Square Enix unveiled new studio Tokyo RPG Factory.
| June 21