Anthem is February's best-selling game, Crackdown 3 nowhere to be seen - NPD

News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor

Published on March 20, 2019

The data for February's game and hardware sales in the US are in.

Just like every month, the NPD Group has published a report about the health of the business in the US, mostly covering retail and online sales with some digital data taken into account from participating publishers.

In February, spending on video game software, hardware, accessories and game cards amounted to $1.0 billion, a 4% increase over last year. Game software, as well as accessories and game cards all saw growth, but hardware declined.

Hardware

More specifically, the hardware segment saw a 12% drop compared to last year. Nintendo once again ruled February, with the Switch selling more than any other consoles during the month.

Nintendo had an especially busy February, too, generating its highest hardware dollar sales since February 2011. And, despite the lack of big Switch exclusives so far this year, Nintendo comfortably posted highest year-to-date dollar sales for hardware since 2011.

Even Nintendo gamepad sales had a good month, seeing a whopping 80% increase in February.

Software

Software sales generated $457 million in February, a healthy 15% growth. This was expected, considering the number of big games released during the month.

Anthem was the best-selling game of February, pushing it to be the second best-selling game in 2019 so far. Anthem's launch was also the second biggest in BioWare history, in terms of sales, behind Mass Effect 3.

Jump Force did well at number two, achieving the third highest launch month sales for a Bandai Namco-published game. Kingdom Hearts 3 rounds out the top three, and the game remains the year's best-selling so far.

Other notable February releases like Metro Exodus, and Far Cry New Dawn both landed in the top ten, with Exodus setting a new launch month record for the franchise.

Crackdown 3 is bizarrely nowhere to be seen in the top 20, or the Xbox One-only top ten.