The NPD Group has released hardware sales data for the US for the month of April 2021 (via ResetEra), and the Nintendo Switch, as it generally tends to, has topped the charts once again. Nintendo’s hybrid platform was the best-selling console for the month in terms of both unit and dollar sales, and remains the US’ best-selling console for all of 2021 as well.

Hardware spending overall has seen a bit of a drop from April 2020. Total hardware spending for April 2021 fell 30% year over year to $296 million, though they were still 84% higher than the hardware spending for April of 2019. Meanwhile, total hardware dollar sales for 2021 currently stand at $1.7 billion, which is up 42%.

On the accessories front, total spending for April 2021 stands at $168 million, which is a 23% year over year drop. Year to date accessories spending is up 22% from the same period in 2020, with the figure currently standing at $885 million. The PS5’s DualSense controller was the best-selling accessory for April (and for all of 2021), with the PS5’s Pulse 3D Wireless Headset coming in at second.

Data for software sales in the US in April 2021 was also released. Read more on that through here.

The NPD Group has released data for software sales in the US for the month of April 2021 (via ResetEra), and the results are mostly unsurprising. MLB The Show 21 launched halfway through the month, and it’s topped the software charts for the month. As the first game in the series to launch on multiple platforms, it’s no surprise that the game has enjoyed the best launch ever in terms of dollar sales for an MLB game. All the more impressive, however, when you consider that these numbers don’t include digital sales on Xbox, and the fact that the game is also available on Xbox Game Pass. It has also instantly become the third highest selling game of 2021 in the US.

New Pokemon Snap also debuts in third place, even without digital sales included, and sold twice as much as the original Pokemon Snap did at launch in 1999. Fellow new releases NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… and Returnal debuted in fifth and eighth place respectively.

Meanwhile, Outriders is in fourth place, Mortal Kombat 11 re-enters the top 10 at sixth place, and It Takes Two climbs up to No. 9. Monster Hunter Rise takes seventh place, while the perennial sellers like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury also rank in the top 10.

You can check out the full software charts for April 2021 below.

1. MLB The Show 21^
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
3. New Pokemon Snap*
4. Outriders
5. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…
6. Mortal Kombat 11
7. Monster Hunter Rise
8. Returnal
9. It Takes Two
10. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
11. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
12. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
13. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury*
14. Minecraft
15. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
16. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
17. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
18. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
19. Pokemon Sword and Shield*
20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

*Digital sales not included
^Xbox digital sales not included

The data for video game software and hardware sales in the United States across all of July 2020 is in, courtesy of The NPD Group (via GamesBeat), and was the case last month – and has been for a number of months running, in fact – the Nintendo Switch was once again the highest selling console in the region for the month, in both unit and dollar sales. It is also the highest selling platform of the year so far.

The PS4 and Xbox One had both been enjoying resurgences of sorts in recent months, with sales being driven up due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it seems that boost is now fading away, with sales for both consoles now dropping. Given how close we are to the successors for both machines coming out, that’s not a surprise. It’s a surprise, in fact, that the two had been selling as well over the last few months as they had been.

The Switch, on the other hand, is moving from strength to strength in terms of sales, in spite of what has arguably been a weak year for the console as far as major new releases are concerned. A lot of that is probably down to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Just recently, in fact, Nintendo announced that the Switch’s lifetime worldwide sales had hit 61.44 million as of June 30 of this year.

All in all, hardware spending in the US across July stood at $166 million, down 2% from July 2019. Meanwhile, year-to-date hardware spending stands at $1.8 billion, which is up 22% year-on-year.

The NPD Group has released data for video game software and hardware sales in the United States during the month of November 2019 (via GamesBeat), and it was a big month in terms of new releases. On top, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare remains unmoved, retaining the pole position from last month, and maintaining its position as the best-selling game of the year.

Meanwhile, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order occupies the second spot, enjoying the second biggest launch month for a Star Wars games in terms of dollar sales, trailing only behind 2015’s Star Wars: Battlefront. It has also instantly become the ninth best-selling game of the year, while also becoming Respawn Entertainment’s biggest launch in the US ever.

The next three positions are all dominated by Pokemon, which has performed just as well in the US as it has in other areas of the world, including the likes of Japan and the UK. Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are in at No. 3 and No. 5 respectively, sandwiching Pokemon Sword and Shield Double Pack in fourth place.

Notably, this is the series’ best ever launch month in the US, which is really saying something, outperforming Pokemon Sun and Moon. In fact, if the three separate packages were counted as a single game, Pokemon Sword and Shield would be placed 2nd in the charts.

Death Stranding, meanwhile, is in seventh place, while fellow new release Need for Speed Heat is No. 9. Additionally, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, placed 17th, has become the best-selling fighting game in US history, outselling the previous holder of the record, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

You can check out the full NPD software charts for November 2019 below.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
2. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order^
3. Pokémon Sword*
4. Pokémon Sword and Pokemon Shield Double Pack*
5. Pokémon Shield*
6. Madden NFL 20
7. Death Stranding
8. NBA 2K20
9. Need for Speed: Heat
10. Luigi’s Mansion 3*
11. FIFA 20
12. Borderlands 3
13. The Outer Worlds
14. Just Dance 2020
15. Mario Kart 8*
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
17. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
18. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
19. Grand Theft Auto V
20. Mortal Kombat 11

* Digital sales not included
^ Steam sales not included

The NPD Group has released sales data for video game software and hardware sales in the United States for the month of April (via GamesBeat), and the two biggest releases of the month, Mortal Kombat 11 and Days Gone, both performed very impressively, as they have been doing in other parts of the world as well.

Though Days Gone has been maintaining a steady lead over Mortal Kombat 11 in the UK for a number of weeks running, in the US, the NetherRealm fighter topped April’s charts. Mortal Kombat 11 has sold so well on its debut, in fact, that it has immediately jumped up over the likes of The Division 2, Resident Evil 2, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and others to become the second best-selling game of 2019 so far, trailing behind only Kingdom Hears 3. 

Mortal Kombat 11 was also the best-selling game in April for each of the individual platforms it debuted on- the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. This makes it only the second third party game ever to top the Switch software charts for a month, with the first being Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle in September of 2017, as pointed out by NPD group analyst Mat Piscatella.

Then there’s Days Gone, which debuted second in the charts, showing impressive sales performance in the US similar to the UK, as mentioned above, and Japan, in spite of mixed reviews. In fact, Days Gone has already become Sony Bend’s best-selling game in the United States ever, in terms of lifetime revenue accrued.

You can take a look at the full software sales charts below.

On the hardware side of things, the Nintendo Switch was once again the highest selling console for the month. Every system other than the Switch suffered a decline in sales. For April and for 2019 collectively, the Switch is the best-selling console in the US across both, unit and dollar sales.

NPD Software charts for April, 2019:

1. Mortal Kombat 11
2. Days Gone
3. MLB 19: The Show
4. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2**
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice**
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4**
9. NBA 2K19
10. Yoshi’s Crafted World*
11. Red Dead Redemption II
12. Mario Kart 8*
13. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
14. Minecraft***
15. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
16. Final Fantasy X2/X-2 HD Remaster
17. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
18. Jump Force
19. Battlefield V*
20. Borderlands

*Digital sales not included
**PC digital sales not included
***Xbox One and PlayStation 4 digital sales are included for Minecraft

So when we get NPD results with PS4 and Switch in the lead, and Xbox in dead last, which happened in the month of November, at first glance it seems like business as usual. Yes, Xbox trailed behind the other two consoles, like it has for all its life. What else is news?

But last month’s NPD results were a bit special in this regard. The Xbox One was still dead last, behind the Switch and PS4, so on surface, there’s not much more to consider here from that perspective. But last month’s results were actually record breaking for one reason—all three consoles managed to sell over 1 million units for the month, something that has never happened before (previously, we have had three systems sell over a million in a month, but one of them was a handheld. To be precise, all three consoles sold over 1.3 million units.

PS4 and Switch selling that well in a month during Holiday season is something you expect. They are naturally strong products, commercially speaking, and they both had exciting Holiday propositions, with Sony riding the launch of Spider-Man, a game based on the most popular superhero in the world, and exclusive to their platform; and Nintendo riding the one two whammy of Pokemon Let’s Go, and in November the still upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Of course the two consoles sold well.

But what about Xbox One? While Xbox had aggressive discounts and bundles, as is par for the course for the brand now every Holiday shopping season, there was no major new mass market level exclusive for them to push console sales. Yes, we had Forza Horizon 4 launch back in September, and it was great. But it’s the third Forza Horizon game on Xbox One, and the sixth Forza game on the console overall. And Forza, even Forza Horizon, great though it is, is decidedly not mass market, at least not next to something like Spider-Man and Pokemon.

What’s more, unlike 2016 and 2017, when there was new hardware to propel sales—Xbox One S and Xbox One X respectively—there was nothing of the sort here. So the million plus units of sales for Xbox One were truly a surprise. A pleasant surprise, to be clear—it was great to see the console do well (along with the other two). With all three consoles doing so well, it was a clear indication that the United States gaming market is healthy, and trucking along well.

But for Microsoft, specifically, it is also good news. You see, the fact that the Xbox One managed to sell as well as it has without any major new game or hardware launch to push it, in the face of such fierce competition, indicates a lingering loyalty and legacy for the Xbox brand, at least in the United States. It indicates that consumers there recognize the Xbox brand, and are absolutely fine with gravitating to it, even without any immediate impetus to do so. That is the kind of loyalty Nintendo and PlayStation enjoy, where customers are willing to pick their systems up, leading to consistent sales around the world. It’s why even absolutely undesirable products such as the Wii U or the PlayStation Vita manage to sell whatever they can manage, even when there are zero compelling reasons to actually buy them—because customers trust the consoles to give them something they might enjoy.

Xbox enjoying that kind of loyalty in the United States at the very least is good news, because it means there is life in the Xbox brand yet. The Xbox brand has taken a batterring through this generation, thanks mostly to missteps and ill conceived moves made earlier in the Xbox One’s life. Phil Spencer and his team have spent the better part of their tenure trying to right the ship, and rehabilitate the Xbox’s image as a brand and as a console family. They’ve invested heavily in differentiating services, introduced new, powerful and easy to develop for, gaming focused hardware, and expanded their portfolio of first party studios to have better and more consistent first party exclusive games.

But most of these steps have come either too late to help the Xbox One, or too early to help it (such as the studios Microsoft has bought—in the future, they will help Xbox a lot, but by the time they start churning out games, the Xbox One will be made obsolete by whatever its successor ends up being). In other words, Microsoft and Xbox have been rebuilding mode for a while now.

You could expect Xbox to do better next generation as a result of all these moves—I certainly do. I don’t know if I expect Xbox to go toe to toe with PlayStation or Nintendo, but I expect a far better performance from it than we got from the Xbox One. But you also expect the Xbox One, in the here and now, to not really benefit much from any of this.

Which means these high sales for the Xbox One are a surprise of the best kind: they show Microsoft the brand has value and lingering loyalty, and there are people who will go to the Xbox in the future, once they have a compelling offering. The Xbox One X is it, but it comes too late in the generation to counter PlayStation and Nintendo’s inertia and momentum. But the next generation will be a reset, and as long as Microsoft gets it right from the get go this time, it will do better. Their in built brand legacy, at least in the US, gives them sure footing to start building up, if nothing else.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Sony’s God of War has been a tremendous success, which managed to exceed all expectations, including Sony’s own. That success has made it the fastest selling PlayStation exclusive ever tracked by the NPD Group, analyst Mat Piscatella said today.

That’s actually amazing, since the NPD Group began tracking video game sales in 1995, the same year PlayStation originally launched in North America- which means that, unless some early life PS1 game sold faster than God of War (which is highly unlikely), God of War is the fastest selling PlayStation exclusive ever in the United States. That’s faster than any Uncharted game, or The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy IX or X, or Horizon: Zero Dawn.

As anyone who has played Sony Santa Monica’s masterpiece will attest to, it’s truly deserved success- the game is a stunning reinvention, and displays the kind of mastery over game design that few other games in history have managed to.

If you have not played it already, God of War is out now on PS4.

A bit you may have missed yesterday – "after three months God of War, according to NPD data, is actually the fastest selling PlayStation exclusive since tracking began in 1995" https://t.co/UAxG95gHQl

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) August 2, 2018

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.

NPD results for the month of May came out earlier today, and the PS4 came out on top yet again- but Xbox and Switch managed to do well too, with all three consoles getting their best May numbers yet, and Switch ending as the highest selling SKU for the month.

But there is no denying the PS4 has done the best through this year, especially on the back of God of War– is that something that we can realistically expect to continue for a while? PS4 has the momentum right now, and while Switch has some big releases lined up in the back half of the year, neither them nor Xbox One have any major games coming in the next few months that could possibly swing the momentum.

“I think Switch should have a real nice June, and then a big boost with Pokemon,” said Mat Piscatella, analyst for the NPD Group, speaking to GamingBolt. “PS4 should continue to trend well, but Xbox One could take a month or two, especially as we get into holiday. The big unknowns are pricing and promotional strategies for Q4, which can swing shares a bit. Regardless, I do expect [a] good year for all three to continue.”

Piscatella also talked about how the US market isn’t zero sum, and how data suggests that the success of one console doesn’t seem to come at the expense of the others.

“I think the market is a bit less directly competitive than most think. Cross-ownership rates are high, shows me that these boxes are meeting different player wants and needs. I don’t think the market is zero sum.”

It seems like all three consoles are doing well, and will continue to for the coming year- though, given the various variables at play in the coming months, it will certainly be interesting to see how the market trends going forward.

The Nintendo Switch has set yet another record- the hybrid console, which has been selling at an unprecedented pace, in spite of being plagued by shortages for the early part of its life cycle, has been setting and breaking sales records around the world. Now, it’s set another one.

The NPD Group indicated yesterday that the Switch was, over the first year of its life, the highest selling home console ever in history in the United States. Yes, that means it was higher selling in that first year than the PS4, and that it was higher selling than the Wii. For those who have been expecting sales of the system to drop off any time soon, I think it is time to admit that the Switch is here to stay.

Sales for the Switch should continue at a steady clip thanks to a stacked lineup in the coming months, as well as the release of Labo, which could expand the Switch’s appeal to a broader market. Its performance in the coming months will be interesting to observe.