Video game analysts predict that Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Gearbox's Borderlands 3, and Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be the most popular video games during the 2019 holiday season. Parent companies Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, and EA, are no strangers to profitable holiday seasons. In 2018, Take-Two Interactive saw tremendous success with the release of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2, EA with their sports lineup, and Activision Blizzard with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a reimagining of the original entry that set the first-person shooter world on fire back in 2007 when it originally launched. The game will undoubtedly see success as all Call of Duty titles have to some extent for over a decade. Borderlands 3, on the other hand, is coming out after a seven-year hiatus since the release of Borderlands 2. The Star Wars name alone is enough to put Respawn's first entry in a galaxy far far away on the map. All of these games have similarly been in the gaming conscience since their respective reveals due to a variety of reasons. Even with some heavy competition from Ubisoft, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and more, each of the aforementioned games will undoubtedly be able to net a large chunk of sales this holiday.
Barrons reports that Cowen analyst Doug Creutz predicts Borderlands 3 will sell roughly nine million units this holiday season, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will sit somewhere between 12 to 13 million sales, and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will surpass both with 24 million sales. Each of the three parent companies had stock increases on Tuesday, and the forecast seems to show that they'll all have a great holiday season with their new software. Industry analyst Mat Piscatella writes that this is one of the "stronger transition year slates we've seen," indicating that while 2019 might not outperform 2018's holiday season, it could surprisingly come close.
In terms of other games that'll surely garner attention this holiday, Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, Obsidian's The Outer Worlds, Ubisoft's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, and Bethesda's Doom: Eternal are all set to release before the end of the year. While those games might not outperform the latter titles, they're definitely worth keeping an eye on. Of course, players can also expect to see sports games like NBA 2K20 and Madden NFL 20 find some high spots on the top-selling list.
With Call of Duty and Star Wars practically destined to make it into the top-selling games of 2019, it'll be interesting to see where Borderlands 3 ultimately falls with such a large gap between the second and third games in the projected sales rankings. No matter what types of games players enjoy, there'll be no shortage of new titles stemming from various genres this holiday. While 2019 is coming to close, 2020 is showing no signs of letting up with new games and consoles on the horizon.