Rockstar strikes again
The NPD Group has shared its statistics for the whole of 2018 and some not-so-surprising outcomes have happened. Rockstar’sRed Dead Redemption 2was the best selling game of 2018 followed by Treyarch’sCall of Duty: Black Ops 4.NBA 2KandMaddenthen chart in third and fourth withSuper Smash Bros. Ultimatecoming in fifth. Surprisingly,Smashbeat outGod of War,Spider-Man, andMonster Hunter: Worldin terms of overall sales while only being on shelves for a month.
The top 20 list for 2018 looks like this:
*Does not include digital sales**Does not include PC digital sales
As for the best selling console of 2018, that honor goes to the Nintendo Switch. It beat out the PS4 and Xbox One throughout the year but really drove it home in December. The release ofSmashled to the Switch being, “the highest December-month hardware dollar sales for a single platform since the Nintendo Wii in December 2009.” It even achieved the highest unit sales for a single-platform since December of 2010.
As far as December was concerned,Smashmay as well have been the only game on sale. It dominated the monthly chart along with six other Nintendo exclusives. “Super Smash Bros. Ultimateset a new launch-month dollar sales record for a platform exclusive in Video Game history,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella reports. “Packaged software launch month dollar sales ofSuper Smash Bros. Ultimateexceeded those of the previous best in franchise history,Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by over 70 percent.” It has also become the fastest selling console exclusive to ever be tracked by the NPD.
December’s top 20 list is as follows:
With all of that laid out, I’m mostly surprised at how ridiculously wellSmashdid. BothGod of WarandSpider-Manbroke records for Sony, yetSmashstill topped them without breaking a sweat. This isn’t even including digital sales ofSmash, which likely put it even higher. I guess people were really clamoring for the latest entry in Nintendo’s all-star brawler.
Console hardware sales may have been down, but 2018 seemed to push software sales for everyone.Maddenbroke August records,Monster Hunter: Worldquickly became Capcom’s best selling title, and evenSpyrodominated charts. Here’s hoping 2019 continues some of that steam.
NPD 2018: The 20 best-selling games of the year[Venture Beat]
