Current Events > August 2019 NPD: A 20-year low for August video game sales

(+) Yeah! (+)

NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers. But not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesnt share its first-party sales, and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales.

These charts are sorted by dollar sales not number of units sold.
1.Madden NFL 20**
2.Minecraft***
3.Grand Theft Auto V
4.Fire Emblem: Three Houses*
5.Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
6.Super Mario Maker 2*
7.Mario Kart 8*
8.Mortal Kombat 11
9.Tom Clancys Rainbow Six: Siege
10.Astral Chain*
11.Marvels Spider-Man
12.The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
13.Red Dead Redemption II
14.Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII**
15.Age of Wonders: Planetfall
16.Super Mario Party*
17.Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order*
18.New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
19.The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan
20.Assassins Creed: Odyssey

*Does not include digital sales
**Does not include PC digital sales
***Minecraft digital sales include Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but not other digital sales.

You can probably tell by looking at the list above that August was not a great month for software sales. Minecraft, a 10-year-old game, was the second-best seller of the month. And 2013s Grand Theft Auto V was No. 3. August had no new releases that made a dent unless you count Madden, which technically launched in NPDs July tracking period.

And NPD confirmed that this was the worst August in terms of software sales in more than 20 years.

Dollar sales of tracked video game software fell 22 percent in August versus a year ago, to $257 million, said Piscatella. This represents the lowest total software sales in an August month since August 1998, which was $234 million.

Overall, 2019 is still on par with last years software sales, but that is due primarily to the newer of the three major console platforms.

Ouch. Astral Chain and Control deserved better.
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Darmik posted...

For example, Nintendo doesnt share its first-party sales

kek

Control fucked themselves over

It's the type of game PC gamers like but they didn't put it on Steam

DarthAragorn posted...

Control fucked themselves over

It's the type of game PC gamers like but they didn't put it on Steam

Digital wasn't tracked so Steam sales wouldn't have counted regardless.
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Darmik posted...

DarthAragorn posted...

Control fucked themselves over

It's the type of game PC gamers like but they didn't put it on Steam

Digital wasn't tracked so Steam sales wouldn't have counted regardless.

That's not true for all games on that list

And unless I'm blind I don't see Control on it at all to know whether it counts digital or not

https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1172281383256915968

Quick hit takes - Wow Minecraft, Wow GTAV, Age of Wonders surprised, no digital tracking for Control hurts, software was rough overall, but should recover in Sept. Switch carrying hardware in a big way.

Sorry I saw this tweet but didn't post it. Control didn't have digital sales tracked. I don't think it would have charted very high regardless.
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Astral Chain probably did fine. Digital sales aren't included and they had that voucher program. It also only had one day of sales tracked. I think it's enough to get a sequel.

Control is a worry though. I think it's yet another Remedy game that did okay enough to keep them alive but still not enough to be a hit. I don't know if Remedy has really had a smash hit since the first Max Payne.
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As annoying as it was I think Remedy/505 taking the money from Sony and Epic was the right decision considering how it seems to be selling. They'll probably get a Game Pass moneyhat soon to cover the rest.

The budget being lower combined with all of these deals hopefully means they've made a profit regardless. I want to see more games like what Remedy makes.
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August seems like it was pretty thin on heavy hitters, apart from Madden.
Lots of divisive and unproven games in that list, alongside some long tails.

We really are relying on the switch to keep the market going right now. And that won't change till the new systems launch.

wow, GTAV's still in the top ten (top three this time).
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The inflation, the economy, and the fact that many Americans are going through financial and personal difficulties is the reason why video game sales are so low. Americans want to buy the latest triple a title, a new console, a gaming pc, but they are hurting right now.

The latest jobs report was horrible.

remedy is finally dead, thank fuck