The NPD Group has released its retail report for the month of January 2018, revealing that the US video games business experienced its best January since 2011.
Spending across video game hardware, software, and accessories increased by 59 percent compared to the same period last year, totaling $1.1 billion. On the software side, spending reached $517 million – an increase of 51 percent year-over-year.
Capcom’s Monter Hunter: World was the best-selling title of the month followed by Dragon Ball FighterZ. NPD’s Mat Piscatella noted that Dragon Ball FigherZ saw the highest launch month sales in the franchise since 2002’s Dragon Ball Z: Budokai.
Full list of January’s best-sellers is as follows:
- Monster Hunter: World
- Dragon Ball: Fighterz
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds
- Grand Theft Auto V
- NBA 2K18
- Super Mario Odyssey
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Mario Kart 8
- Madden NFL 18
On the hardware front, all three home consoles performed well. According to NPD, the Dollar sales gap between the best-selling console and the third best-selling console was only 3 percent. Combined, over a million units were sold in January.
As for accessories, total spending reached $301 million – a record high for the month of January. Turtle Beach headsets were the top-selling products in this category.
[Source: Mat Piscatella (Twitter)]
