Call of Duty and Skylanders went 1 and 2 in December 2013 US sales

Call of Duty: Ghosts and Skylanders Swap Force took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, on the U.S. sales chart for December 2013, publisher Activision announced today, citing data from the NPD Group.

Ghosts came in as the top-selling game of the month, and ended up as the best-selling title of 2013 on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Infinity Ward's first-person shooter extended the Call of Duty franchise's streak of being the top franchise of the year in the U.S. (in both units sold and dollars) to five consecutive years.

Including revenue from software, toys and accessories, Swap Force (screenshot above) was the No. 2 best-selling game of December, which helped make the Skylanders series the top-selling kids video game franchise in the U.S. for the second year in a row. In addition, the Skylanders series ended up in the No. 3 spot on the list of 2013's best-selling franchises overall.

"This consumer response to both Call of Duty: Ghosts and Skylanders speaks to the deep connection both franchises have made with fans, which fuels our commitment to delivering great games time and again," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, in a press release today.

According to the NPD Group's report on U.S. video game sales for December, the month's top-selling titles were, in order, Ghosts, Electronic Arts' Battlefield 4 and Ubisoft's Just Dance 2014. In software sales alone, Swap Force came in at No. 10 on the list.

Activision executives said last February that they expected sales of 2013's Call of Duty title (later revealed to be Ghosts) to be lower than those of the previous year's entry in the franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. A day after Ghosts' release last November, the company announced launch-day sales into retail of more than $1 billion, but provided no comparison to sales of Black Ops 2.