In another down month for the industry, February 2016 saw retail sales in the United States fall 12% year-over-year to $842.5 million. Breaking the number down, hardware sold $292.2 million (down 23%), software including PC was at $309.5 million (down 11%), and accessories was at $246.4 million (up 1%).
According to NPD analyst Liam Callahan, “The main cause of the decrease was portable hardware, which dropped by 58 percent, or $48MM, due to a difficult comparison to the launch of Nintendo’s new 3DS in February 2015 (the number one platform in Feb. 2015).”
It wasn’t just portable sales dropping last month, with previous-generation console sales down 77%, while current-gen console sales were down 6%. “However, the difference in volume between these declines is only $7MM due to the eighth generation now representing 86 per cent of all hardware dollar sales,” Callahan added.
He also revealed that, on a 12-month rolling basis, “video game point and subscription card sales exceeded $1 billion for the first time.”
As for software, Far Cry Primal was #1 overall and outsold Far Cry 4 “when adjusted for the number of days the games sold within their respective launch months.”
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, meanwhile, “was the top-selling game on a SKU basis with its PS4 version.” If you combine the standard and collector’s edition SKUs of Street Fighter V though, it outsold Naruto.
Here’s the top 10 selling games for February 2016 (January 31 – February 27), which totals retail sales across all systems and includes Collector’s Editions, GOTY Editions, and bundles, but not those bundled with hardware (sales by platform are ranked in brackets from highest-selling to least-selling):
- Far Cry Primal (PS4, XBO)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (XBO, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
- Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3, PC)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS4, XBO)
- NBA 2K16 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
- LEGO Marvel’s Avengers (PS4, 360, XBO, Wii U, PS3, 3DS, Vita)
- Street Fighter V (PS4)
- Minecraft (360, XBO, PS4, PS3)
- Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS)
- Fallout 4 (PS4, XBO, PC)
Do you think The Division will help software sales rebound this month?
[Source: Games Industry, Games Beat (1), (2)]
