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Kingdom Hearts III, Resident Evil 2 can't stop January US sales dip

NPD Group finds gaming revenues down 19% year-over-year to $893 million; growth of Switch sales offset by declines in all other platforms

The US games industry saw declines in January despite a full slate of big new releases. The NPD Group today released its monthly US sales report, showing total game sales down 19% for the month to $893 million.

That decline came despite the January debuts of Kingdom Hearts III, the Resident Evil 2 remake, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Last year's January haul of $1.1 billion was led by Monster Hunter World and Dragon Ball FighterZ, representing the industry's best opening sales month since 2011, but the decline was down to more than just a tough comparison against last year. January 2018's NPD reporting period covered five weeks, while last month's was four weeks long.

On the software side, sales were down 18% to $427 million. Nintendo Switch software sales grew by a double-digit percentage, while all other platforms saw declines. The top 20 best-selling games across all platforms for January follows:

  1. Kingdom Hearts III
  2. Resident Evil 2
  3. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (digital sales not included)
  4. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII (PC digital sales not included)
  5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (digital sales not included)
  6. Red Dead Redemption II
  7. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
  8. NBA 2K19
  9. Mario Kart 8 (digital sales not included)
  10. Grand Theft Auto V
  11. Madden NFL 19 (PC digital sales not included)
  12. Tales of Vesperia
  13. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (digital sales not included)
  14. Battlefield V (PC digital sales not included)
  15. Super Mario Party (digital sales not included)
  16. Minecraft (PlayStation and Xbox platforms only)
  17. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
  18. Marvel's Spider-Man
  19. FIFA 19 (PC digital sales not included)
  20. Super Mario Odyssey (digital sales not included)

The NPD Group tracks physical sales for all platforms and digital sales for titles from a panel of a dozen participating publishers.

On the hardware side of things, sales were down 28% year-over-year to $199 million. As in software, the Nintendo Switch saw its hardware sales grow over last January's numbers, while all other platforms saw declines.

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Brendan Sinclair

Managing Editor

Brendan joined GamesIndustry.biz in 2012. Based in Toronto, Ontario, he was previously senior news editor at GameSpot in the US.