NPD March 2015: Shooters, Sports, Bloodborne, Oh My!

Each month industry experts are given a report that details all of the consoles and software numbers sold from physical retail brick-and-mortar stores within the United States, which are then reported on by sites privileged with that sort of information. They are published from the NPD group, with this month’s numbers reporting for NPD March 2015.

Top 10 most sold physical software titles in the US, according to NPD March 2015 numbers (bracket order=most-to-least sold version):

1. Battlefield: Hardline (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, 360, PS3, PC)
2. Bloodborne (PS4)
3. Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3)
4. Mario Party 10 (Wii U) (sold 290,000 copies physical and digital, according to Nintendo)
5. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
6. MLB 15: The Show (PS4, PS3)
7. Minecraft (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4)
8. NBA 2K15 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
9. Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (PS4, Xbox One)
10. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (PS4, Xbox One)

Per usual, representatives from the console producers commented on their hardware sales during this month’s NPD results. The PS4 was the top-selling platform for both hardware and software this month, while “cumulative U.S. Xbox One sales continued to outpace Xbox 360 sales at the same point in its lifecycle,” according to Microsoft PR. Meanwhile, Nintendo hardware has been doing fairly well worldwide in the first three months of 2015, as the 3DS has seen an 80% year-over-year increase compared to a similar time frame in 2014. The Wii U has seen a fair increase over that same period of time, as well, with a 20% year-over-year increase.

There are some fairly intriguing trends going on during this month’s NPD. Despite PS4 selling the most software units, it was still bested by the Xbox One in sales on Battlefield: Hardline, Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft, some real heavy hitters when it comes to popular gaming franchises. Still, despite timed exclusivity on DLC, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare still sold more on PS4, which is quite telling about where the FPS community is currently favoring.

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Furthermore, exclusives did fairly well, in a number of ways. We know that Bloodborne has sold over 1 million units worldwide, so it’s no surprise now that it did so well in the United States. For Mario Party 10, its success is understandable, even with the quality of product produced. It was Nintendo’s sole AAA product during March, and the Mario Party series is still fairly popular. MLB 15: The Show coming in at #6 is a genuine surprise due to a few factors. First, baseball simulation is fairly niche, even when comparing it to the sports simulation genre. Furthermore, it was released on March 31st, meaning it was only in NPD consideration for 5 days. It’s quite remarkable it did so well, when you think about it.

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