Our monthly snapshot of how the gaming market is shaping up in the United States is ready for viewing, with Nintendo and Sony coming out as the big winners.
Sony maintained the number one spot for hardware sales with their PS4 having now sold more than 20.2 million units in its lifetime, but Nintendo also had a strong month by moving more than 395,000 units across all their handheld platforms. Per usual, Microsoft didn’t comment on their numbers but they did note that gamers on Xbox Live spent an average of 74 hours playing their consoles in the U.S. last month.
Software is very interesting this month for a variety of reasons. For starters, this list usually only contains physical copies sold, but Nintendo offered up digital sales figures for their two games in the top 10, and those sales were combined with physical units moved. This is not the case for any other game in the top 10, so it’s entirely possible that Evolve was actually number one game for physical sales.
The Order: 1886 coming at number nine is a bit surprising when you consider the heavy marketing push Sony made for that game, but maybe not so surprising when you look at the general consensus of its reviews, and the fact that it was only on sale for one week before these numbers were compiled. Evolve seems to have started strong coming in at number two, and Dying Light camping out in the top three for the second straight month is a good sign for the future of that franchise.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (3DS)
- Evolve (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
- Dying Light (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
- Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- NBA 2K15 (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360)
- Dragon Ball: Xenoverse (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360)
- Minecraft (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4)
- The Order: 1886 (PS4)
- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS)
Source: VentureBeat via NeoGaf
Tuffcub
So Nintendo cheated their way to the top making the chart pointless.
Eldur
I agree that there should be parity across markets, but I think the sales numbers should include physical and digital sales anyways – given the increasing relevance of digital sales these days, it’s the only way to keep the sales figures representative.
Starman
Interesting the xboxone is still selling more copies of some titles despite what must be a big gap in consoles sold.
bunimomike
I assume it ties in with any promotion Microsoft couples with the titles in question.
Tuffcub
I think MS count games shipped with consoles, but Sony don’t. Or something odd like that.
Eldur
Regarding The Order, what’s kept me from buying it, other than the consistently average review scores, is the ridiculously high price it seems to be commanding. I would quite happily spend some money on this sort of thing – linear, but interesting concept and system leading graphics – but I would not spend £50.
blackarts
29.99 is not as high price for the order. The review scores further how corrupt the gaming press are. Payolla is widespread…
Forrest_01
No, £29.99 is not a particularly high price for the Order, but that also isn’t responding to what Eldur said – He said he wouldn’t pay £50 for it, which it still is in most retail outlets.
For what it’s worth, I agree that its not worth that.
Eldur
Illuminati-style press corruption aside, are you saying that you can purchase The Order for £29.99? If so, where?
I’d be more than willing to give it a go for £30, but a lot of my friends who pre-ordered (and I can only assume are not Illuminati) have said that it’s a beautiful game, if a remarkably dumb one – still looks like it’s worth a play through.
JR.
I agree that some review scores were ridiculous. Especially when you consider how games like COD and Fifa score high every year. I’m not sure it’s a money thing but you can be damn sure that if IGN gave COD anything lower than a 9, they wouldn’t be sent a review copy the following year or get exclusive interviews or special privileges at gaming events. That’s why they keep them sweet. They’re afraid to piss off the big publishers because they know they’ll just go elsewhere if they say a bad word. That’s what’s wrong with the gaming industry. They don’t care about the little guys because they don’t have any power over them.
Starman
@JR are you saying Sony are “the little guys” then? Surely ign wouldn’t want to annoy the biggest brand in gaming at the moment?
JR.
There are certain games that sell incredibly well year after year and the big gaming sites are just not going to give them a bad review full stop. Whether they’re too hard, too short, too scary, the same as last year or just plain average. The same rules don’t apply. They aren’t going to upset the publishers with the best selling games because it benefits them not to. They wont loose anything from being overly critical of The Order. It isn’t a huge seller and was never going to sell as well as the likes of COD/FIFA/GTA. These best selling annual games are expected to review and sell well year after year. And if that expectation isn’t met, you can be damn sure that any benefits they receive from these publishers will soon disappear. Do you think SE/Activision would invite IGN to an exclusive advanced preview of the next COD if they had scored Advance Warfare 5/10? No chance. They’ll just invite Eurogamer instead. Having the best selling games makes a huge difference on the way games are reviewed. Bend over backwards or you’ll be thrown of of the circle.
blackarts
http://n4g.com/news/1687910/the-order-1886-is-now-only-29-99-thats-more-like-it
double-o-dave
£30 is a good price for The Order… Well worth it.
JR.
I agree, the short campaign isn’t an issue but the price is too high. Cheapest is £45 currently but I don’t want to pay more than £30/35.
blackarts
See the link. You can get out for £30. Sad that it’s come to this, that a fine game can be cheapened by internet viral hate campaigns in the media.
Microsoft dollars at work. When you have unlimited money, you can spend billions of dollars making the internet and reviews say whatever the hell you want.. They call it advertising, but its effectivly paying for review outcomes.
Anyone that thinks this isn’t the case, how do you think all these gaming websites make money? Do you really think everyone works for free?
JR.
It’s not just The Order. I wouldn’t pay more than that for any new game. I picked up The Evil Within, Far Cry 4 and Tomb Raider before Christmas for the grand total of £46. I bought Driveclub and Halo MCC for £20 each. Wolfenstein New Order for £12. The actual length/quality of the game has nothing to do with it. If I want to buy something, I’ll buy it. When the price is right. Especially if it means I get to try more games.
Plus, I know that technically you can get The Order for £30 by following your link. But it’s being sold on ebay and it comes in a Spanish box. It’s not the same as buying a UK copy on Amazon.