The NPD Group has released its numbers (via VentureBeat) for the month of March, and the Nintendo Switch was the bestselling console again, for the fourth month straight, and for every month this year. This also, naturally, makes it the bestselling console for the year so far, and the bestselling console for the quarter. The NPD Group confirms this is in terms of both, dollar sales as well as unit sales.

We don’t know how well the PS4 and Xbox One have done, as they are not a part of the public release of sales data; nonetheless, at the very least, their underperformance relative to the Switch can be explained by the fact that both the consoles are nearing the end of their life cycles, while the Switch, now in its third year, is hitting its prime.

April should be an interesting month for hardware sales; the PS4 has a major high profile release in Days Gone, but the partial unveiling of the PS5 may end up puncturing the console’s sales potential so far. The Switch doesn’t actually have any notable exclusive launch this month, but given that it has managed to be the top selling console for three months straight without needing one, maybe it will clamber to the top again. We’ll know next month.

The NPD Groupshared its report for the bestselling video game software and hardware in the United States for the month of January earlier today, and while the Nintendo Switch was the top selling console for the month in the country, it was Kingdom Hearts 3, a game that is not available on the Switch at all, which topped the software charts. Kingdom Hearts 3 had the best debut in franchise history, with dollar sales up by 2.5x over the previous record holder, Kingdom Hearts 2.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown also created a franchise record, with launch sales 70% higher than Ace Combat 6’s. That said, it wasn’t the game that came in second—that was Resident Evil 2, which saw sales 80% higher than Resident Evil 2 in 1998. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe sales were 30% higher than sales for the original Wii U game, and it came in third place. Tales of Vesperia managed 12th place, while longstanding games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Red Dead Redemption 2 continued to chart well as well.

You can check out the full chart, courtesy of VentureBeat, for yourself below.

Software

Top 20 best selling titles (January 2019) – Includes Physical and Digital sales

1. Kingdom Hearts III
2. Resident Evil 2 2019
3. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII^
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
6. Red Dead Redemption II
7. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
8. NBA 2K19
9. Mario Kart 8*
10. Grand Theft Auto V
11. Madden NFL 19^
12. Tales Of Vesperia
13. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
14. Battlefield V^
15. Super Mario Party*
16. Minecraft#
17. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
18. Marvel’s Spider-Man
19. FIFA 19^
20. Super Mario Odyssey*

* Digital sales not included
^ PC digital sales not included
# Minecraft sales include all physical & digital on PlayStation and Xbox platforms

The NPD Group has shared its report for video game hardware and software sales in the United States for the month of January, and as many may have expected, the Nintendo Switch emerged as the top selling console of the month, ahead of the PS4 and Xbox One. It was also the console that generated the most revenue during the month in hardware sales.

The Switch managed this in spite of missing out on two of the biggest releases of the month—Resident Evil 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3, suggesting the continued momentum from Pokemon Let’s Go and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, alongside the new launch of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, was enough to explain the continued demand for it.

In fact, the Switch was the only console to see a year on year increase in January, VentureBeat reports. However, its year on year gains were not enough to offset the losses suffered by PS4 and Xbox One, and overall spending on hardware fell to $199 million (down 28% from $278 million in January 2018).

Given the absurdly packed lineup the Switch has for this year, I think we can expect to see it topping the charts reasonably frequently from here on out.

The Switch’s success on the market has not come at the cost of any other platform’s success. The PS4, for instance, has continued to do well, even as the Switch has set several records. This indicates that people are buying Switch alongside other consoles, rather than instead of other consoles.

This is a hypothesis supported by the NPD Group. According to analyst Mat Piscatella, cross console ownership among Nintendo Switch owners is extremely high. Posting on Twitter, he revealed that in the United States, more than half of all Switch owners also own a PS4, while more than 40% of all Switch owners also own an Xbox One.

Given that the Switch’s lineup is extremely different from the lineup of the PS4/Xbox One, and that the Switch’s form factor makes it complementary to the other two consoles (thanks to its portability influenced use cases), it is now clear that the Switch is being viewed as an addition, rather than a replacement. For Nintendo, this is in the end good news, because it maximizes their addressable market—you won’t purchase a Switch or an Xbox One/PS4, you’ll purchase a Switch and an Xbox One/PS4.

Cross-ownership of Switch and PS4/Xbox One in the US remains high. According to PlayerPulse from @EEDAR over 50% of US Switch owners also own a PS4, and over 40% of US Switch owners also own an Xbox One.

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 31, 2019

Thanks to the NPD Group’s reports, we already know that the Nintendo Switch had not just a bumper December in the US, but just a bumper year through 2018, period. However, the large scale effects of this can be easy to miss, and so video game analyst Daniel Ahmad has taken to Twitter to highlight just some of what this means in terms of the big picture.

First things first—in the United States alone, the Switch has now sold in 10.5 million units. Given that the Wii U sold 13.5 million units worldwide for the entirety of its life, this is an impressive stat. Secondly, with the Switch now being 22 months into its life cycle, it is outpacing the PS4 and Xbox One alike launch aligned. It has sold 22% more units than the PS4 had 22 months into its life, and 34% more than the Xbox One had. This indicates that in the United States, at the very least, the Switch could well end up being the bestselling console of the generation. As it stands right now, it’s already the fastest selling console in the US for this generation.

Assuming the Switch continues to perform like this worldwide, it could well reverse the projected downturn for the global video game industry in 2019.

Here are some stats from Nintendo of America based on US NPD sales data:

In the US, Nintendo Switch sold 5.6 million units of hardware in 2018, up 16% YoY.

This takes the total installed base of Nintendo Switch to 10.5 million in the US.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 24, 2019

The Nintendo Switch has been on the market for 22 months in the US. When launch aligned, the total install base of the Nintendo Switch is 22% higher than the PS4 and 34% higher than the Xbox One, respectively.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 24, 2019

That the PlayStation Classic isn’t doing well has been clear for a while, given the bevy of price cuts we have seen for the microconsole in just over a month since it first came out. There are a variety of reasons as to why it might not have done well, from a poor lineup of games to well documented and reported emulation issues.

However, just how poorly it is doing may come as a shock to many—for instance, last month, the NES Classic, the two year old reissue of the 30 year old console, outsold the PlayStation Classic in the US, the NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella revealed on Twitter.

That said, it seems like the NES Classic performed like a freak of nature through 2018 in the US anyway. Piscatella revealed that in terms of unit sales, it outsold every other SKU on the market through 2018 other than the Neon Joycon Nintendo Switch bundle. This means that it effectively outsold PS4 and Xbox One in 2018! That said, the combined PS4 family and Xbox One family surely outsold it, since NES Classic is just one SKU.

It’s a stunning result—and makes it even more baffling that Nintendo will now be discounting selling it. It seems to me like it could become a long term source of revenue for them.

Had a few questions on Plug N Play – The NES Classic Edition was the best-selling Plug N Play system of December and 2018. Only the Switch 32GB Neon Red/Blue Joy Con item sold more units of hardware in 2018 than the NES Classic Edition.

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 23, 2019

In news that should have surprised no one, given that early reports were already indicating this would be the case, the Nintendo Switch was not just the top selling console in the US for December, it was the top selling console in the US for all of 2018, in terms of both, revenue and unit sales.

The Switch’s success made it generate the most revenue for the year than any console has managed since the PS4 in 2015. In all, Switch was the primary driver of hardware spending and year on year growth in 2018.

“Nintendo Switch ends 2018 as the year’s best-selling hardware platform in both units and dollars,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella to VentureBeat. “Annual unit and dollar sales of Nintendo Switch are the highest annual total for any hardware platform since the PlayStation 4 in 2015.”

Switch aside, console sales just seem to have been great all around in the US, reaching the highest annual totals they have achieved since 2009—so in a decade, basically.

On the whole, it’s great to see the console industry so healthy, and it’s great to see all consoles having done well. Switch being the top selling console of 2018 was an interesting development too, given how the PS4 was outpacing it for most of the year, but yet again, that validates Nintendo’s hits driven strategy. Now to see if the console can hit 20 million for the year…

Nintendo didn’t just top the software charts for the month, or have a pervasive presence on the software charts for the year, according to the NPD Group. No, they also had the bestselling console for December 2018 in the United States, with the Nintendo Switch beating the Xbox One and PS4 alike as the top console in the country last month.

Buoyed by the success of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo Switch wasn’t just the bestselling console of the month, it was also the best December on record for any console this generation so far. Not only that, but it generated more money in December than any console has since the Wii in 2009, and more unit sales for any console in the month since 2010.

“Nintendo Switch generated the highest December-month hardware dollar sales for a single platform since the Nintendo Wii in December 2009,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said to VentureBeat. “And it achieved the highest December unit sales for a single platform since December 2010.”

On the whole, this is another vindication of Nintendo’s first party driven strategy, and how much their hits drive hardware sales for them. Hopefully, going into 2019, Nintendo can end up having better spaced releases for the entire year relative to 2018, where they backloaded most major releases for the last few months.

The NPD Group has released its report for December 2018, which also includes year to date sales charts for the US. Thanks to these charts, we know that the best selling game of 2018 in the country was Red Dead Redemption 2. This marks the first time since 2013 that a Call of Duty game was not the best selling game of the year—when, ironically, Call of Duty: Ghosts got ousted by Grand Theft Auto V.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which launched in December (and topped software charts for the month) ended up shooting its way all the way to number 5 on the year end charts, ahead of games such as God of War and Spider-Man. As a reminder, it did this without any digital sales being tracked for it (where they are in at least some capacity for most other games on the software charts).

“Annual dollar sales of tracked console, portable, and PC video game software reached $7.1 billion in 2018, growing 7 percent when compared to 2017,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella told VentureBeat. “This is the highest annual total for tracked video game software spending since the $7.5 billion generated in 2012.”

You can check out the software chart for the full year for yourself below:

1. Red Dead Redemption 2
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
3. NBA 2K19
4. Madden NFL 19
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
6. Marvel’s Spider-Man
7. Far Cry 5
8. God of War 2018
9. Monster Hunter: World
10. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
11. Grand Theft Auto V
12. Mario Kart 8
13. FIFA 19
14. Battlefield V
15. Super Mario Odyssey
16. Call of Duty: WWII
17. Dragon Ball: FighterZ
18. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
19. Super Mario Party
20. Pokemon: Lets Go Pikachu

We already had indications that the game had had a record breaking debut, but now, we have confirmation. The NPD Group has gone ahead and released the software charts for December 2018 for video games in the United States, and in news that will be a shock to no one, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out on the top as the best selling game of the month.

It beat out Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Battlefield 5, which comprised the next four spots. It did this without any digital sales being tracked for it (while they are tracked at least partially for most other games on the lists).

On the whole, Nintendo had a bumper month in December. Seven of the Top 20 are Switch games, each of them is exclusive, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is now the second highest selling racing game of all time in the US, behind only Mario Kart Wii. 

In all, $1.237 billion were spent on video games in December in the US, which is down 3 percent from $1.281 billion spent in December 2017. Courtesy of VentureBeat, you can see the full software charts below.

1. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
3. Red Dead Redemption II
4.  Battlefield V
5. NBA 2K19
6. Mario Kart 8
7. Madden NFL 19
8. Super Mario Party
9. Pokemon: Lets Go Pikachu
10. Marvel’s Spider-Man
11. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
12. Pokemon: Lets Go Eevee
13. Super Mario Odyssey
14. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
15. Just Cause 4
16. FIFA 19
17. Grand Theft Auto V
18. Minecraft
19. Spyro Reignited Trilogy
20. Fallout 76