Yesterday, the NPD numbers for September 2018 were released, and there is plenty to be garnered from the data. Not surprisingly, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man took the top spot of the best selling games for the month.
After reporting the game being the fastest selling PlayStation exclusive, Marvel’s Spider-Man continued to dominate and set records. The game “achieved the highest launch month dollar sales for any PlayStation exclusive in history” according to NPD analyst Matt Piscatella. Not only this, at its launch, the game also accrued higher dollar sales than any game released this year. The biggest surprise from the the data was the fact that Marvel’s Spider-Man had 37 percent higher sales than all previous Spider-Man games at launch combined. However, even with all this success, Marvel’s Spider-Man only ranks third overall in the best selling games of the year. It is squarely behind Sony’s other highly successful exclusive God of War at #2 and Ubisoft’s open world action shooter Far Cry 5 at #1. It will come as no surprise to see sales continue upward for the game though as, last week, Insomniac released New Game Plus, and the first piece of DLC released earlier this week with two more on the way.
Placing second on the list was NBA 2k19. This year’s entry in 2k’s highly successful basketball franchise became the best selling sports title of the year surpassing EA’s Madden NFL 19, and is the fifth best selling game of the year so far. Not only is NBA 2k19 the best selling sports game this year, according to the report, it is the best selling sports game since NPD began tracking sales in 1995. It’s the time of year where sports games dominate the charts as FIFA 19, Madden NFL 19, and NHL 19 all made it into the top 10 best sellers as well.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ranked third on the list despite coming out at the tail end of September’s tracking period. With only two days of sales, Ubisoft’s newest entry in the long running franchise surpassed many games that had been out for a longer period. Along with this, the game had a “double digit percentage” sales increase over last year’s entry according to Piscatella.
Below are the Top 10 best selling games of September 2018.
- Marvel’s Spider-Man
- NBA 2k19
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
- FIFA 19
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Madden NFL 19
- Forza Horizon 4
- Destiny 2
- Super Mario Party
- NHL 19
On the console side, the PlayStation 4 continued its dominance with being the best selling console of the month for the sixth time this year. Along with this, the PS4 is the best selling console of the year. Overall console sales are down 3% compared to this time last year. However, overall spending on video game hardware, software, accessories, and game cards has grown by 7% compared to last year to a whopping $1.4 billion. 2018’s year-to-date dollar sales are up a massive 16% at $8.9 billion compared to 2017’s $7.7 billion year-to-date total at this time.
