The NPD Group, a market research company, has released its monthly sales charts painting a picture of the gaming market in the U.S during the month of August. And just like last month, the Nintendo Switch was the best selling piece of video game hardware.
Meanwhile on the software side of things, Switch exclusive Splatoon 2 has been replaced with EA’s Madden NFL 18, the newest release in the publisher’s highly-popular and annual football simulation series.
However, despite a few notable August game releases, the market as whole suffered a year-on-year on decline of 2 percent, reporting only $568 million for the period.
Video game software specifically declined 2 percent to $271 million (PC game software saw a steeper drop of 23 percent), while hardware suffered a slightly increased decline of 6 percent to $168 million. But it wasn’t all declines, as the accessories market actually increase 10 percent to $118 million, largely driven by Xbox One S controller, game cards, and Nintendo Switch Pro controllers.
Behind the aforementioned Madden NFL 18 in the software chart was the ever-present Grand Theft Auto V, which according to NPD has achieved 41 Top 10 chart appearances in its 49 months on the market, which is 16 more appearances than any other single title in reported history. Yeah. It’s really popular.
Coming in at No.3 is Naughty Dog’s Uncharted standalone experience, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which like Madden released relatively late last month, but unlike Madden was restricted to only one platform, the PS4 (which makes coming in at No.3 quite impressive). Rounding out the top five is two Nintendo Switch exclusive titles — Splatoon 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in that order.
The only other new release to crack the Top 20 was Volition and Deep Silver’s Agents of Mayhem, which came in at No.16. As you may know, August saw quite a few digital-only gems (limited physical runs and collector’s editions not counting), such as: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Sonic Mania, Observer, Absolver, and LawBreakers.
The one notable exclusion is Switch-exclusive, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, however, it released on August 29th, which means it would only have had two days on the market (aka hardly enough time to have a good shot at cracking the Top 20).
Below, you can check the Top 20 software chart (it’s important to note Nintendo games do not include digital figures, while Overwatch’s figures don’t include Battle.net — PC platform — numbers)
- Madden NFL 18
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
- Splatoon 2
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Mario Kart 8
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastred
- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
- Overwatch
- Injustice 2
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
- Minecraft
- For Honor
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III
- Agents of Mayhem
- Forza Horizon 3
- Battlefield 1
- NBA 2K17
- UFC 2
And here is the Top Ten selling games of 2017 so far in the U.S., according to NPD:
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Grand Theft Auto V
- For Honor
- Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Injustice 2
- Mass Effect: Andromeda
- Madden NFL 18
- NBA 2K17
- Resident Evil 7