Madden NFL 25, Saints Row IV Top US Sales in August

The NPD Group has revealed the top ten best-selling games in the United States for the month of August.

Total game sales for the month (including hardware, software and accessories) were $521 million, up 1% compared to last year. Software sales brought in $305 million, up 21% from the same month in 2012, while hardware brought in $90.8 million (down 40% from last year's $150.8 million).

The best-selling titles in the United States for the period between August 4 and August 31 were the following:

1. Madden NFL 25 (360, PS3)
2. Saints Row IV (360, PS3, PC)**
3. Disney Infinity (360, WII, PS3, NWU, 3DS)
4. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist (360, PS3, NWU, PC)**
5. Minecraft (360)
6. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (3DS)
7. NCAA Football 14 (360, PS3)
8. Payday 2 (360, PS3)**
9. Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn (PS3, PC)**
10. Pikmin 3 (NWU)

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

According to NPD analyst Liam Callahan, overall sales “grew a modest 1% over August 2012 as growth in software and accessories offset soft hardware sales as we near the launch of the Xbox One and PS4. Excluding January 2013, which was up due to an extra reporting week versus January 2012, the last time overall retail video game sales (hardware, software, and accessories) were up year over year was October 2011.”

Callahan added that “video game retail software sales had their first positive month, up 23 percent, since November 2011. This was driven by the shift of Madden into the August data month and other launches such as Saints Row IV, Disney Infinity and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. In fact, eight of the top ten games this month were launched in August.” He also noted that “collectively, August 2013 launches made up an astounding 58 percent of overall dollar sales for the month and 41 percent of units sales.”

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 software specifically “combined to grow over 50 percent and are now only down only one percent year to date, which he called “remarkable” considering how close we are to the launch of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. He added that PS3’s Tales of Xillia would have made the top 10 if individual SKUs were counted (in other words, if sales across platforms weren’t combined for the top 10).

In terms of hardware, Callahan said 3DS outsold other platforms for the 4th consecutive month, and Xbox 360 led hardware sales for the 32nd consecutive month.

Microsoft reports that 96,000 Xbox 360s were sold in the US in August, and consumers spent $213 million on Xbox 360 hardware, software and accessories for the month.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

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