The NPD group has reported the numbers on how well video games did in the U.S. for the inaugural month of 2019. Last year’s best selling console, the Nintendo Switch, was the best selling console of the month in both units sold and dollar sales, and is the only console to see growth year on year. Despite the strong performance the hybrid console has had, Nintendo recently lowered its forecast for how much they expect the console to sell.
On the software side, Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts franchise returned with a bang as Kingdom Hearts III was the best selling game of the month despite releasing at the tail end of the tracking period. The game even shipped over five million units worldwide within its first week. This also marked the first time a entry in the series topped the chart since 2006 with Kingdom Hearts II. Kingdom Hearts III took the record for highest launch month sales as it sold two and a half times better than Kingdom Hearts II, the previous record holder.
At number two on the list was the long awaited remake of Resident Evil 2. The acclaimed remake sold an astounding 2.8 times as much as the original Resident Evil 2 back in 1998. While sitting at two overall for the month, the game was the best selling game on Xbox One for January. Along with this success, Capcom recently released free DLC for the game, and a crossover with PUBG Mobile has just launched.
Elsewhere on the list, placing third was the newest Nintendo Switch port, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and had 30% higher sales than the original version when it released on Wii U in 2012. Last year’s best selling titles, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption II placed fourth and sixth respectively. The Ace Combat series returned with Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown placing seventh, and selling almost twice as much as its predecessor did. Grand Theft Auto V continues to perform well as it rounded out the top ten.
Below is the list of the top ten best selling games from January 2019:
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Resident Evil 2
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Red Dead Redemption II
- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
- NBA 2k19
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Grand Theft Auto V
While video games did well to start the new year, overall spending across gaming was down 19% to $893 million when compared to January 2018, but still above most of the prior years. Reasoning for this trend could be attributed to numerous factors, some of which include the January 2019 tracking period being four weeks long compared to five weeks in 2018, massive launches in the Monster Hunter and Dragon Ball franchises in January 2018, and the declining sales of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as the console generation nears its end.