US monthly report: best January since 2011 as Monster Hunter leads the charts

January broke records in the US as games sales were up 59 per cent year-on-year compared to January 2017, the NPD Group’s monthly charts reported. Sales across software, hardware and accessories reached $1.1bn (£0.80bn) compared to $690m (£496m) last year. This was the highest January for the US market since 2011, NDP added.

Hardware performed particularly well, hitting $278m (£200m), a 119 per cent increase year-on-year, with NPD’s VG industry analyst Mat Piscatella noting that “in dollar sales, the gap between the top-selling platform and the third best-selling was only 3 percent.” Both PS4, Xbox One and Switch saw growth in January, the report said.

Meanwhile, software (which includes both physical sales and digital sales from Steam, PlayStation and Xbox shops) was up 51 per cent to reach $517m (£372m) and accessories’ sales increased 37 per cent year-on-year this January, hitting $301m (£216m).

Monster Hunter: World was without surprise the best-selling title in the US in January, and was the biggest launch for a Monster Hunter title in the US.

Dragon Ball: Fighterz debuted at No.2 and was the best launch for a Dragon Ball title since 2002’s Dragon Ball Z: Budokai.

Here’s the Top Ten in the US for the period between December 31th 2017 and February 3rd 2018 (data courtesy of the NDP Group):

1. Monster Hunter: World (Capcom)
2. Dragon Ball: Fighterz (Bandai Namco)
3. Call of Duty: WWII (Activision)
4. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (Microsoft)
5. Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar)
6. NBA 2K18 (Take Two)
7. Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo)
8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)
9. Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo)
10. Madden NFL 18 (EA)