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NPD: more data for July 2016 (Software, best-selling games)

Earlier today, Aquamarine from VG Chartz / Gamrconnect shared some data from the NPD for July 2016 in the United States: click here to check this out! If you want more, no problem: she has even more data to share (courtesy of the NPD, who actually allows her to share it in the first place).

First, let’s start with Software. According to the NPD, total software sales (consoles + handhelds) amounted to $156 million, which is a 13% drop compared to July 2015 (and 35% compared to June 2016). As noted by Aquamarine, those sales are the “lowest since the turn of the century”… not really a good sign.

Quite surprisingly, Software sales for the Wii U are stable Year on Year (but down Month on Month):

  • PS4 software was down -3% YOY (-46% MOM)
  • WIU sofware was down +0% YOY (-33% MOM)
  • XBO software was down -3% YOY (-42% MOM)

As we can see with that data, sales are pretty stable for current-gen platforms. Therefore, most of the drop comes from previous-gen platforms and handhelds, which is something the NPD has been pointing out for a while now.

Next, here’s the list of best-sellers (with Aquamarine comments/additional data in quotes):

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III “was the number-one best physical seller in July 2016 with 194 000 units (including bundle units) and 64 000 units (excluding bundle units)”
  2. Minecraft: less than 175 000 units,  “top of the physical non-bundle charts”
  3. Grand Theft Auto V: 172 000 units, “actually up YOY (GTA July 2015: 171K)”
  4. Monster Hunter Generations: less than 165 000 units. In comparison, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate sold about 290 000 units during its first month on the market (NB: that number includes digital sales. Also, the game launched at the same time as the New Nintendo 3DS XL)
  5. Pokémon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (thanks, Pokémon GO!)
  6. LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  7. Overwatch: 135 000 units
  8. NBA 2K16: 111 000 units

Unfortunately, Aquamarine also has some bad news for two Nintendo games:

  • Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE sales dropped “significantly below 35 000 units”, and even call it “DOA” (Dead on Arrival). A niche game on a niche platform where the audience for that kind of game is pretty small… the writing was on the wall, unfortunately;
  • Kirby: Planet Robobot: June sales were pretty good but July is a different story. She explains that “legs were a LOT weaker than expected”, and that in fact, sales for “3DS catalog outside of Pokemon [were] also weak”.

NB: please make sure to check out the source link if you’re interested in additional data/comments, especially those for Sony and Microsoft platforms.

Source: NPD
Data shared by Aquamarine from VG Chartz / Gamrconnect

Lite_Agent

Founder and main writer for Perfectly Nintendo. Tried really hard to find something funny and witty to put here, but had to admit defeat.

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