Industry analysts and sales trackers NPD have published their findings for U.S. video game sales in the month of January, with Nintendo giving both the hardware and software categories a boost.
JANUARY 2019 TOP 20 GAMES (Physical and Digital Ranked On Dollar 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 (includes sales on both PlayStation and Xbox platforms)
17. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
18. Spider-Man
19. FIFA 19^
20. Super Mario Odyssey
Assorted facts based on NPD’s numbers for the month that was:
- According to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella, hardware, software, accessory, and game card spending for the month dropped 19 percent when compared to last year’s January, coming in at $893 million. Nevertheless, January 2019 was the second-highest January since 2013.
- Hardware was down 28 percent from the previous year, even though historically it was a good January. The Switch was the month’s best-selling hardware in terms of units and dollars, and the only system with year-on-year growth.
- January’s best-sellers list on PS4 and Xbox One individually were basically the same (Kingdom Hearts III was number one for PS4 and number two on Xbox One, where Resident Evil 2 took the top spot and KH III was number two). Microsoft first-party title Sea Of Thieves came in at six for Xbox One, while Sony exclusive Spider-Man charted at seven on the PS4 rankings.
- Similar to hardware, software also declined (18 percent) compared to last year’s January, with Nintendo doing the heavy lifting. Software sales on the Switch showed double-digit growth while the other platforms declined.
- Dollar sales of Kingdom Hearts III during the month launch period was 2.5-times greater than Kingdom Hearts II.
- Ace Combat 7 enjoyed its best-ever launch month, which was 80 percent higher than Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.
* (Digital sales not included)
^ (PC sales not included)
Source: Game Informer Kingdom Hearts III Takes NPD January