Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 remains best-selling game in January

Call of Duty Black Ops 3 screenshot — Black Ops 3 is the 12th instalment in the hugely popular Call Of Duty series Activision

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 took advantage of a lean month for new video game releases to remain the top-selling game in the US in January.

The popular first-person shooter beat out competition from the likes of Grand Theft Auto 5, Star Wars: Battlefront and Fallout 4 to remain top of the charts for a third successive month.

Market research firm NPD was reported as saying that overall hardware sales dipped 15% compared to the same month a year ago to $157m (£109m), partly due to fresh price cuts to consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

Software sales were impacted by the paucity of new releases and dipped 10% to $213m.

A Sony spokesman told GameSpot that PS4 was the best-selling console in the US during January and also led the pack in software sales.

"PS4 also saw impressive year-over-year growth in both hardware and software sales," the representative said.

"We appreciate the support and will continue to deliver on our promise to bring the best entertainment experiences to gamers."

Call Of Duty sales

Released in November 2015, Black Ops 3 is the 12th instalment in the hugely popular Call Of Duty series.

Developed by Treyarch, it takes players to a futuristic world facing upheaval from climate change and radical new technologies.

Call of Duty publisher sued for wrongly depicting Angolan rebel — Black Ops 3 was among the biggest entertainment launches of 2015 Getty Images

NPD's data surprisingly revealed that the military shooter sold better on the Xbox One than on the PS4, despite the latter's user base having access to the Awakening DLC pack first.

However, this may be explained by the fact that NPD's research does not include digital sales and sales in the second-hand market from outlets such as GameStop.

Games sold bundled together with consoles are also excluded from software sales figures.