Another month another release from the NPD Group on how well video games fared in the U.S. during the month of August. Unfortunately, August wasn’t the best month for video games as spending fell across all categories to $666 million which is a drop of 18% when compared to last year.
On the software side of things, August saw a huge drop in spending on software as dollar sales fell 22% when compared to August 2018 to $257 million. This is the lowest video game software sales have been in over 20 years as August 1998 only achieved $234 million in sales. As for which games performed the best, last month‘s number 1, Madden NFL 20, finished first this month as well. This also marks the seventh straight year that the Madden franchise has taken the top spot in August. The game has also jumped to the third best selling game of the year just behind Mortal Kombat 11 and Kingdom Hearts III respectively.
Elsewhere on the list, the ever present games Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V placed second and third respectively. This also marks Minecraft‘s highest placement on the monthly list ever. Nintendo again had a strong showing in August with 5 different exclusives placing in the Top 10 best selling games. One of which, Astral Chain, was the only game released in August that cracked the Top 10.
You can check out the full Top 10 best selling games of August in the U.S. below:
- Madden NFL 20^
- Minecraft**
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses*
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- Super Mario Maker 2*
- Mario Kart 8*
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
- Astral Chain*
*: Digital Sales not included
**: Only includes digital sales on PS4 and Xbox One
^: PC Digital Sales not included
On the hardware side of things, the Nintendo Switch, which has been the top console every month, continues that trend as August’s best selling console. However, consumer spending on hardware is continuing to falter as the end of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation nears it end with the Switch the only console seeing growth. Spending on hardware overall fell 22% to $167 million compared to last year, and year-to-date spending on hardware fell 21% when compared to the same point last year to $1.6 billion.