Kingdom Hearts III Takes NPD January

Industry analysts and sales trackers NPD have published their findings for U.S. video game sales in the month of January, with Nintendo giving both the hardware and software categories a boost.

JANUARY 2019 TOP 20 GAMES (Physical and Digital Ranked On Dollar Sales)

1. Kingdom Hearts III
2. Resident Evil 2 (2019)
3. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII^
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
6. Red Dead Redemption II
7. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
8. NBA 2K19
9. Mario Kart 8*
10. Grand Theft Auto V
11. Madden NFL 19^
12. Tales of Vesperia
13. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
14. Battlefield V^
15. Super Mario Party*
16. Minecraft (includes sales on both PlayStation and Xbox platforms)
17. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
18. Spider-Man
19. FIFA 19^
20. Super Mario Odyssey

Assorted facts based on NPD's numbers for the month that was:

• According to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella, hardware, software, accessory, and game card spending for the month dropped 19 percent when compared to last year's January, coming in at $893 million. Nevertheless, January 2019 was the second-highest January since 2013.
• Hardware was down 28 percent from the previous year, even though historically it was a good January. The Switch was the month's best-selling hardware in terms of units and dollars, and the only system with year-on-year growth.
• January's best-sellers list on PS4 and Xbox One individually were basically the same (Kingdom Hearts III was number one for PS4 and number two on Xbox One, where Resident Evil 2 took the top spot and KH III was number two). Microsoft first-party title Sea Of Thieves came in at six for Xbox One, while Sony exclusive Spider-Man charted at seven on the PS4 rankings.
• Similar to hardware, software also declined (18 percent) compared to last year's January, with Nintendo doing the heavy lifting. Software sales on the Switch showed double-digit growth while the other platforms declined.
• Dollar sales of Kingdom Hearts III during the month launch period was 2.5-times greater than Kingdom Hearts II.
• Ace Combat 7 enjoyed its best-ever launch month, which was 80 percent higher than Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.

* (Digital sales not included)
^ (PC sales not included)