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NPD June 2015: Not A Dark Night For The Industry

By Daniel George

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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 June 2015.

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

  1. Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
  2. The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
  3. Lego: Jurassic World (360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3, 3DS, Wii U, Vita)
  4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
  5. Splatoon (Wii U)
  6. Minecraft (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4)
  7. Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
  8. Mortal Kombat X (PS4, Xbox One)
  9. NBA 2K15 (360, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, PC)
  10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)

It’s a great June for the industry as a whole, as excellent May-end titles like Splatoon and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have shown real legs leading into the release of Batman: Arkham Knight at the end of June. Blockbuster AAA gaming franchises don’t usually release in June due to the focus on E3 and the end of school for many, but Arkham Knight and its PS4 bundles helped to drive hardware sales up 8% year over year, software sales up 21% and an 18% overall sales. In fact, an NPD analyst said, “If sales were included from hardware bundles, Arkham Knight is the best-selling game of 2015 so far.” NPD does not count bundles, as of yet.

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No doubt, the limited edition Batman: Arkham Knight PS4 bundles helped to drive PlayStation’s newest home console to the top of NPD hardware and software sales in the month. That’s not to say that Microsoft and the Xbox One were slumping, as Xbox PR stated that the console is up 51% year over year (roughly 297,000 based on estimations). To round it out, Nintendo is seeing success of Splatoon in the United States, with 455,000 people becoming both a kid now, and a squid now, on the Nintendo Wii U. Mario Kart 8, with more than a year on the market, has reached over 2 million US units sold.

What’s interesting to note is that Batman: Arkham Knight had PS4 lead software sales, despite it being packed in on bundles (and NPD doesn’t count bundles). Additionally, despite no 3DS video games being listed in the Top 10 this month, the Nintendo 3DS has seen a 40% year over year increase for a period of the first six months of the year. It doesn’t matter which console(s) you own; at this point in time, retail gaming in the US is strong, and the variety of growth rates shows promise for the console gaming industry.

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Looking to write about video games? Join us at GameSided! Contact me to apply or if you have any inquiries/tips: daniel.george@fansided.com.

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