7 years as king of the hill — Call of Duty is again the top-selling game of the year

Call of Duty is continuing its unprecedented run at the top of the gaming charts.

For the seventh year in a row, Activision’s shooter franchise has topped the sales U.S. sales charts. Call of Duty: Black Ops III was the best-selling game worldwide, and the series as a whole — including the sales of Advanced Warfare and other legacy entries — helped the series stave off competition from releases like Fallout 4. This comes as many gamers claim they have grown tired of the Call of Duty franchise, but its popularity continues in the face of those criticisms. That means we’re likely going to keep getting a new yearly release in this series for a while as its publisher continues turning it into cash.

Here’s a statement from Activision’s Rob Kostich, the senior vice president and general manager for Call of Duty:

“Call of Duty: Black Ops III was the top-selling title of 2015 globally by a wide-margin in both units and dollars sold-thru. This also marks the seventh year in a row that Call of Duty has been the No. 1 selling franchise in North America, according to NPD. In fact, Call of Duty has surpassed 250 million units sold life-to-date worldwide.  This achievement is thanks to the amazing experiences created by all of our development teams, and would not be possible without the  incredible passion from the Call of Duty community. We congratulate Treyarch on creating an incredibly engaging and an enormously fun game with Black Ops III and look forward to what’s to come in 2016.”

Call of Duty’s rise to the top started way back in 2007 when Activision released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. That game brought a level of polish and progression that players hadn’t seen before in a shooter on console or on Windows. It was an immediate smash hit and earned a number of Game of the Year honors. Since then, between developers Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer, we’ve had one new Call of Duty every November.

And while Grand Theft Auto V outsold Call of Duty: Ghosts in the United States in 2013, the franchise as a whole still made more money than any other console game every year, according to Activision. And while Grand Theft Auto comes and goes from the sales charts, Call of Duty never leaves.