Amongst the hype of this month’s new releases, it’s time to take a look back at March 2016 as the top 10 best-selling titles of last month are revealed.
The first quarter of 2016 is up already and market research company NPD Group has released a sales report, detailing which of this year’s early releases have made it into the top 10 best-sellers of March 2016. The statistics take into account any new, physical sales of a game in the United States during last month.
Tom Clancy’s The Divisiontakes the number one spot on the list, helping to drive up the month’s software sales by 8%. The PlayStation 4 was the platform that sold the most copies of the game and was also the top selling console in March, a fact that is unsurprising when you consider the console is predicted to reach69 million units soldby 2019. These numbers are likely to shoot up even further if rumors are correct about anew 4k PS4 release. The full top 10 list is as follows:
According to NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan, software sales have easily surpassed last March, rising from $395.4 million to $425.8 million. Not only that but sales of new games have overall risen by 26%, and games that launched in 2016’s first quarter sold 28% more in March than 2015 did. Callahan also pointed out thatThe Divisionis performing much better than you might think. Whether or not you’vebought into the hypethat preceded the game’s release,The Divisionhas outperformed every otherTom Clancytitle to date. The post-apocalyptic shooter has beaten the previous number one best-seller,Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, by a margin of 40% so far.
The two Wii U titles that have made the list,The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HDandPokken Tournament, are both exclusive titles to a platform that only this year surpassed12 million unitsin sales, which makes their placements all the more impressive. A Nintendo spokesperson commented on the performance ofTwilight Princess, claiming that the title has outperformed every first-party Wii U game in first month sales, other thanSuper Smash Bros,Super Mario Maker, andMario Kart 8.
In terms of console sales, all hardware purchases have lowered by a rather substantial 19% for March when compared to last year. The previous generation consoles are down a steep 78% in sales, suggesting that many gamers have completed their transition onto a current-gen console.
How many of March’s top 10 games do you own? Are there any more that you think deserve their place on the list? Leave us a comment and let us know.
