September has come and gone, but today the NPD Group released the results of how well the video game industry fared in the United States during the month. During the month, spending across all categories fell 8% to $1.28 million when compared to September 2018 which saw mega hits like Marvel’s Spider-Man and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey released during that tracking period. For the year, however, overall spending is down 6% to $8.3 billion when compared to last year.
On the software side of things, this year’s installment in the hit NBA 2k franchise, NBA 2k20, was the best selling game of the month. Not only that, the game also usurped Mortal Kombat 11 as the best selling game of the year so far. Still, not to be outdone, the game had the best launch month sales of any sports game since the NPD Group began tracking, and caused the series to surpass Guitar Hero as the sixth best selling franchise in the history of the tracking.
Elsewhere, placing second, was Borderlands 3. The game already had publisher 2k Games’ best launch in their history. Now, the game is also the third best selling game of the year just behind the aforementioned NBA 2k20 and Mortal Kombat 11. Other perennial sports game entries FIFA 20, the previous 2 months’ number 1 Madden NFL 20, and NHL 20 placed third, fifth, and ninth respectively. Nintendo and Microsoft also saw their biggest releases of the month hitting the Top 10 with the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening placing fourth and Gears 5 placing seventh.
You can check out the Top 10 best selling games during the month of September in the U.S. below:
- NBA 2K20
- Borderlands 3
- FIFA 20
- The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening*
- Madden NFL 20
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
- Gears 5^
- Code Vein
- NHL 20
- Mario Kart 8*
*: Digital Sales not included.
^: Steam Sales not included.
On the hardware side, declines are still happening as this console generation nears its end. The Nintendo Switch is continuing to be the year’s best selling console and the only console at the moment seeing growth in sales. Spending compared to last September fell 22% to $240 million. Then, for the year overall, spending on hardware has declined to $1.9 billion which is down 21% when compared to this point in 2018.