NPD July: PS5 & Nintendo Switch Drive Record-Setting Month, & Skyward Sword Sales Impress

The NPD Group’s monthly report tracking US video game spending is out, and yet another record has been broken. This time, hardware sales led the charge, with the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch recording impressive numbers. Over on the software side, meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD was the best-selling game of the month, the first Nintendo-published title to earn that accolade since Super Mario World: Odyssey.

As usual, Matt Piscatella broke down the figures over on his Twitter page, which we’ve listed below by industry segment.

Overall Outlook

• July 2021 consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories increased 10% when compared to a year ago, reaching a July record $4.6B. Year-to-date spending totaled $33.5B, a 14% increase when compared to the same period in 2020.

• Hardware was one of the primary drivers of July gains, as dollar sales of console and portable video game systems were 98% higher than in July 2020. Sales of Content increased by $232M, as Mobile, Subscription and Post-Launch Content spend grew vs year ago

Hardware Sales

• July video game hardware dollar sales grew 98% when compared to July 2020, to $323 million. This is the highest total achieved in a July month since 2008 ($447M), and the third highest July month total in history.
• Year-to-date hardware spending has increased 50% when compared to the same period in 2020, reaching $2.7 billion.
• PlayStation 5 led the hardware market in dollar sales for the month of July, while Nintendo Switch once again led in unit sales.
• Nintendo Switch is the best-selling video game hardware year-to-date in both unit and dollar sales.

Software Sales

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was the best-selling game of July 2021. It is the first Nintendo published title to lead the monthly best-sellers chart since the launch of Super Mario 3D world in the February 2021 tracking month.
• Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin debuted as the third best-selling game of July 2021. Launch month sales of Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin more than tripled the lifetime sales of Monster Hunter Stories, originally released on Nintendo 3DS in 2017.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War ranked as the 2nd best-selling game of the month of July, and remains the best-selling game of 2021 year-to-date. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the best-selling game of the month on both the PlayStation and Xbox platforms.
• MLB The Show 21 surpassed Resident Evil: Village to become the 2nd best-selling game of 2021. Year-to-date sales of MLB The Show 21 are the highest in franchise history.

The below slideshow features data on the best-selling software in March and year-to-date.

To compare this month’s results to June, it’s here.