Over on the hardware front, the NPD report for the month of June furnished a result I am sure literally no one in the world could have expected- the best selling console of June in the US was not the PS4 or the Switch. It wasn’t even the Xbox One. No, it was the NES Classic Mini, which ended as the highest selling console of the month (PS4 still generated more revenue, due to being more expensive).
Yes, in 2018, the NES was the highest selling console of the month. “This is the first time a Nintendo Entertainment System console has led in monthly unit sales since NPD tracking began in 1995,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella to VentureBeat.
The PS4, of course, did well as well, ending as the best selling console out of the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One category; incredibly enough, however, it sounds like all three consoles did well. The PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch all saw year on year increases- Xbox One generated double the revenue that it did last year in June, while Switch sold 50% more units in June 2018 than it did in June 2017.
The most surprising thing isn’t that all three of these consoles (and the NES Classic!) did well, however- it seems to be that even the Nintendo 3DS, now in its eighth year on the market, saw a YoY increase, leading to increased YoY sales for the entire handheld segment as a result. No wonder Nintendo wants to keep it around!
You can check out the software sales results by NPD for the month of June for yourself here, if you have not already.