Nintendo Switch heads sales charts in the US

The latest data released by NPD reveals that the Nintendo Switch was the biggest selling console in the United States in August 2017.

The news is another boost for Nintendo, who were under pressure to deliver a hit console after the relative failure of the Wii U and appeared to have achieved this with the Switch.

Indeed, the Switch has now topped the sales charts in the US in four of the six months since its release and appears to have contributed to an overall rise in hardware sales in 2017.

Despite the success of the Switch there is little question that the PlayStation 4 remains the market leader. Sony’s flagship console outsold the Switch in May and June, despite having been on the market for several years, and retains the biggest user base of any current console.

In contrast, sales of the Xbox One continue to disappoint and the drop of 6% in hardware spending in comparison to August 2016 has been attributed to lesser uptake of Microsoft’s console.

A glance at the software charts highlights the dominance of the Switch and PlayStation 4.

Three of the top ten bestselling games are Switch exclusives – Splatoon 2, Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 deluxe – but a major Sony IP places above all three.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy comes in at three in the US software chart for August 2017. However, according to NPD sales for the game may be even higher since their chart only accounts for independent sales of the game, not copies included in the Uncharted 4 Digital Deluxe Edition or the Uncharted 4 Explorer’s Pack.

Grand Theft Auto V continues its remarkable success story with second place in the charts. Rockstar’s game has now charted in NPD’s top ten in 41 of its 49 months of release and has broken countless sales records.

It is EA’s Madden NFL 18 that claims top spot, however. Healthy sales of the popular sports simulation ensure that EA are the biggest selling publisher of August 2017, despite three entries for Activision Blizzard games in the top ten.

In spite of this, software sales have been down three percent year-to-year in August, leaving a $282m drop in profits. The overall status of sales is down from last year currently being at $2.9bn.

As for the racing genre, the NPD Group announced that there has been an incline in sales of more than 80 percent in 2017. The source of income growth was generated by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Forza Horizon 3.

Unfortunately, the shooting genre hasn’t done so well with a massive decline in sales of 30 percent but this still isn’t enough to stop the genre from being the third highest of all time. Accessories have seen a 10 percent year on year increase in August to $118m. NPD claimed that “Year to date, hardware spending has grown 17 percent versus 2016 to “1.7 billion”. So far the main player spending growth is on the Nintendo Switch and Plug N Play devices like the Classic NES.