The NPD Report for August 2015, covering hardware and software sales in the United States, have been revealed. EA’s Madden NFL 16 was the top selling game for the month and this was pretty much expected according to the NPD Group’s Liam Callahan.
“Madden NFL 16…maintains its status as a key video game franchise, ranking as the third best selling franchise to date (since 1995, when NPD began tracking VG sales).”
It should be noted that while physical sales for games on Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U were up by 34 percent, Xbox 360 and PS3 sales were down by 51 percent. “New launches collectively declined by 16 percent compared to August 2014 launches. While titles that launched in June trended favorably compared to the performance of June 2014 launches, July launches also declined by 42 percent.”
Another oddity was the presence of not one but two Call of Duty titles – Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (10th place) and Call of Duty: Black Ops Combo Pack (eighth place). “Call of Duty has two games within the top 10 this month, with Call of Duty: Black Ops Combo Pack performing favorably with increased sales versus prior months. This may be related to the Call of Duty: Black Ops III multiplayer beta that occurred in late August across PS4, Xbox One, and PC.”
Other noteworthy highlights include Gears of War: Ultimate Edition at third place, Rare Replay at sixth place and Until Dawn at seventh place.