September 2020 NPD: Switch #1 For 22 Consecutive Months
September 2020 continues the upward sales trend that the US video game market has been on for most of the year. Total dollars spent for the month came in at $4.3 billion, 10% higher than September of last year. For the year the industry spending is at $33.7 billion, a 21% increase year-over-year.
One again the Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console during the month in both dollars and unit. This marks the 22nd consecutive month that the Switch has been the lead console, breaking the previous streak that was set by Xbox 360 back during 2011-2013. Hardware spending came in at $277 million and the Switch offset the decline of Xbox One and PS4 sales as next generation hype continues to set in and last generation consoles become less desirable. Adding to the problem is the lack of supply of PS4 and Xbox One systems thanks, in part, to the global pandemic.
On the software side of things Nintendo captured 9 of the top 20 best selling games for the month of September 2020. This is all the more impressive considering digital sales are not reported for first party releases, whereas the majority of the other games combine physical and digital copies together in the rankings.
Releasing on September 20, 2020, Super Mario 3D All-Stars came in as the second best selling game of the month (although it’s possible it would have been number one had digital been accounted for). According to Mat Piscatella, analyst for the NPD Group, the game is the tenth best selling of 2020 so far and generated the second highest launch month physical sales of any 2020 release (Animal Crossing: New Horizons beat it out). It’s also the sixth biggest launch month physical dollar sales for any Nintendo published title in history. Not too shabby for a collection of ports! I guess telling the public that the game is limited and won’t be available forever really helps spur those sale.
Check out the full top 20 best-selling games in the US for September of 2020 below:
[Source: Mat Piscatella]
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.
