A game industry organization in germany is giving out awards based on game sales. These are the current awards:

https://www.game.de/vom-inselabenteuer-bis-zur-dystopie-die-game-sales-awards-im-dezember/

This gives us some numbers on some game sale milestone reached in december in germany.

• Animal Crossings: New Horizons > 1M
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla > 500K
• Cyberpunk 2077 > 500K
• The Last of Us Part II > 500K
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales > 200K
• 51 Worldwide Games > 100K
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity > 100K
• Just Dance 2021 > 100K

EDIT:

I see there are similar awards for past months, so we can see other games reaching certain milestones. I add that.

November:

• EA SPORTS FIFA 21 > 1M
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla > 200K
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War > 200K
• Paper Mario: The Origami King > 200K
• Marvel’s Avengers > 100K
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales > 100K

October:

• EA SPORTS FIFA 21 > 500K
• Super Mario 3D All-Stars > 200K
• Star Wars: Squadrons > 100K
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 > 100K

September:

• Ghost of Tsushima > 200K
• F1 2020 > 200K
• Paper Mario: The Origami King > 100K
• Super Mario 3D All-Stars > 100K

July:

• Ring Fit Adventure > 200K
• Ghost of Tsushima > 100K
• F1 2020 > 100K

June:

• Just Dance 2020 > 200K
• The Last of Us Part II > 200K

May:

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons > 500K

April:

• DOOM Eternal > 100K
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot > 100K

March:

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons > 200K

February:

• Borderlands 3 > 200K

January:

• Mario & Sonic bei den Olympischen Spielen: Tokyo 2020 > 100K
• Just Dance 2020 > 100K

Neat. Thanks for sharing.

Is it physical or physical plus digital

Hmm, good question. There actually is a big paragraph about the methods:

"Mit dem game Sales Award zeichnet der game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche verkaufsstarke Computer- und Videospiele in Deutschland aus. Grundlage sind die aktuellen Verkaufszahlen des Marktforschungsunternehmens GfK Entertainment. Titel, von denen mehr als 100.000, 200.000 beziehungsweise 500.000 Exemplare plattformübergreifend verkauft wurden, erhalten den game Sales Award in Gold, Platin beziehungsweise den Sonderpreis. Damit Verkäufe für den game Sales Award berücksichtigt werden können, darf der durchschnittliche Verkaufspreis des Titels nicht stärker als 20 Prozent von der unverbindlichen Preisempfehlung bei Veröffentlichung abweichen. Die ausgewiesenen Verkaufsmengen enthalten plattformspezifische Hochrechnungsfaktoren zur Gesamtmarktabdeckung und zur Berücksichtigung digitaler Verkäufe. Die Festlegung dieser Faktoren obliegt dem game in Zusammenarbeit mit GfK Entertainment. Zusätzlich können Anbieter von Computer- und Videospielen dem game ihre kumulierten Digital-Verkäufe bis zum achten Tag des laufenden Monats und nach Plattformen unterteilt unter sales-award@game.de melden. Der game verpflichtet sich zur Wahrung der Vertraulichkeit der gemeldeten Mengen, überprüft sie und berücksichtigt sie entsprechend bei der Ermittlung der relevanten Verkaufsmengen."

I am too lazy to translate the whole, so I extract the main points:

• data is based on GfK market research
• titles that are reduced in price more than 20% of release price aren't included
• based on the GfK-data they make an extrapolation based on platform specific factors to include the whole market (not covered by GfK) and digital sales
• publishers can report their sales, if they wish to

So, digital sales and sales not covered by GfK are extrapolated. I don't know much of the actual distributors are covered by GfK, but I know they are the leading market research company here in germany, so have probably good connections.

Wow they've been doing these for a while apparently and I hadn't even noticed even though I always check their monthly charts, some pretty intersting stuff here.
Origami King crossed 200k last month it seems, that one kinda surprised me.

I don't know which numbers are based on market research and which are reported, but many game companies are actually members in this organization that makes this awards, so they may know about this and may be inclined to self report. I list the names I find noteworty, full list here.

• 505 Games
• Activision Blizzard
• Bandai Namco
• Capcom
• EA
• id Software
• Koch Media (part of Embracer/THQ Nordic)
• Konami
• Microsoft
• Nintendo
• Sony
• Square Enix
• Take Two
• Tencent
• Ubisoft
• Valve
• Warner
• ZeniMax

Yeah, was new to me too.

Hmm, I should add some of the past months to the OP, so that we get a better picture.

I was going back through the press releases of 2020 and added the sales awards for each month last year. Say something if you are interested going further back in 2019. I am not aware since when this award is given, so I don't know how far back we can go with this.

I doubt it has sold quite that much in the holiday quarter, since I expect it was decently frontloaded, but it certainly done pretty well for itself. Still surprised me though, looking at the other games and their feats.

Just wanted to add, since you didn't mention it, that for multiplats it's all versions added together, meaning Valahalla and Cyberpunk numbers are from PC. PS4,PS5, XBO and XS combined