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NPD: Ghost Recon Wildlands Rises To The Top, Nintendo Breaks Hardware Records
With the release of the Nintendo Switch, Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and a surge of other releases, March was bound to be a big month for the games industry. However, it might be surprising to learn that Ubisoft's latest entry in the Ghost Recon series is what took the top slot for software sales last month across all platforms, with Breath Of The Wild coming in at No. 2, and Andromeda at No. 3.
The Industry made $485 million in hardware sales (a whopping 91% change over March 2016 thanks to the Switch's debut) while video game software earned $612 million. Here's the breakdown of the top 10 selling games across all platforms in March.
NPD Top 10 Games For March
- Ghost Recon Wildlands
- The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
- Mass Effect: Andromeda
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- MLB The Show 17
- Grand Theft Auto V
- For Honor
- NBA 2K17
- Nier: Automata
- Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare
NPD analyst Sam Naji says that March will be remembered as the month Nintendo broke records:
The Nintendo Switch had the biggest hardware launch for a Nintendo platform and the second biggest launch for any video game platform since 1995, the time NPD began tracking this category.
You can check out last month's NPD reportings here.
Our Take
The NPD reportings all but confirm the industry's take that the Switch and Zelda have marked an astonishing reversal of fortune for Nintendo. We'll be curious to see if the Switch can maintain this momentum once the honeymoon period is done. Also, wow, Wildlands.
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