September 2019 NPD Sales Results

The story with video game sales for the year has been consistent over the past few months: dollar sales are declining. This has been mostly because we are approaching a new generation of gaming machines coming out, but also because the year has been lacking major AAA releases like the ones we saw last year with God of War and Spider-Man. September 2019 did have some major releases, including games like Borderlands 3, NBA 2K20, Zelda: Link’s Awakening, FIFA 20, and Gears 5. All of them managed to crack the top 10. Here’s the official Top 20 best selling games for September 2019 by dollar sales. Keep in mind that Nintendo first party games don’t include digital sales, so they could have ranked even higher.

1. NBA 2K20
2. Borderlands 3
3. FIFA 20
4. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening*
5. Madden NFL 20
6. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
7. Gears 5^
8. Code Vein
9. NHL 20
10. Mario Kart 8*
11. Minecraft#
12. Grand Theft Auto V
13. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
14. Spyro Reignited Trilogy
15. Red Dead Redemption II
16. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
17. Plants vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville
18. Marvel’s Spider-Man
19. Catherine
20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

*Does not include digital sales
^Does not include Steam digital sales
#Only includes digital sales for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One

Some notes from ResetEra and NPD:

Unlike August, September had some major software releases. Take-Two released the aforementioned NBA 2K20 and Borderlands 3. But September also saw the debut of FIFA 20, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Gears 5, Code Vein, and NHL 20. Even Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, which launched October 4, is in NPD’s September tracking window, which runs through October 5.

But even with all of those games, software sales were still down.

“Dollar sales of tracked video game software declined 4% in September versus a year ago, to $732 million,” said Piscatella. “Growth in Switch and Xbox One software sales could not offset declines on PlayStation 4, which were driven by the comparable September 2018 release of Marvel’s Spider-Man.”

Compared to last year, software sales are still about par in 2019. But the money has shifted to Nintendo instead of Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

“Year-to-date dollar sales of tracked video game software are flat at $3.9 billion,’ said Piscatella. “Gains in sales of Nintendo Switch software have been offset by declines across all other platforms.”

NBA 2K20
2K Games’s NBA 2K20 debuted in September, and it has already shot to the top of the sales charts.

“NBA 2K20 debuts as the best-selling game of September 2019, and instantly becomes the best-selling game of 2019 year-to-date,” said Piscatella. “NBA 2K20 launch-month sales were the highest for any sports game in history, exceeding sales of the previous record holder, NBA 2K19.”

Borderlands 3
Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 3 also had an impressive debut.

“Borderlands 3 set a new franchise launch month sales record, debuting as the second best-selling game of September,” said Piscatella. “Borderlands 3 currently ranks as the third best-selling game of the year.”

Gears 5
Gears 5’s debut at No. 7 may seem disappointing at first, but it’s important to remember that it is part of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription program. Anyone can get the game as part of that membership for just $10 per month — and Microsoft has had a number of promotions that charged much less than that.

The 10 best-selling games of 2019 so far

1. NBA 2K20
2. Mortal Kombat 11
3. Borderlands 3
4. Madden NFL 20
5. Kingdom Hearts III
6. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
7. Anthem
8. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
9. Resident Evil 2 2019
10. Grand Theft Auto V

The 10 best-selling games of the last 12 months

1. Red Dead Redemption II
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
4. NBA 2K20
5. Mortal Kombat 11
6. Borderlands 3
7. Madden NFL 20
8. NBA 2K19
9. Battlefield V
10. Kingdom Hearts III

Xbox One

1. Borderlands 3
2. NBA 2K20
3. Gears 5
4. FIFA 20
5. Madden NFL 20
6. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
7. NHL 20
8. Plants vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville
9. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
10. Grand Theft Auto V

PlayStation 4

1. NBA 2K20
2. Borderlands 3
3. FIFA 20
4. Madden NFL 20
5. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
6. NHL 20
7. Code Vein
8. Marvel’s Spider-Man
9. Catherine
10. Minecraft

Nintendo Switch

1. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening*
2. Mario Kart 8*
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
4. Spyro Reignited Trilogy
5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
6. Super Mario Maker 2*
7. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes Of An Elusive Age*
8. Astral Chain*
9. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
10. Super Mario Party*

Nintendo 3DS

1. Pokemon: Ultra Sun*
2. Pokemon: Ultra Moon*
3. Super Mario Maker*
4. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D*
5. Mario Kart 7*
6. Super Mario 3D Land*
7. Super Smash Bros.*
8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D*
9. Minecraft*
10. Luigi’s Mansion*

As expected, hardware was down for the month when compared to last year ($240 million versus $307 million). Total video game income was $1.27 billion versus $1.396 billion last year. Switch continues to be the best selling console of the year and is up 20% over last year’s year-to-date numbers.

[Source: ResetEra]

Craig Majaski

Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.