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NPD: Anthem was the best-selling game in February

Mass Effect 3 is the only EA BioWare game to sell more in its launch month

Anthem was the best-selling game in the United States in February 2019, according to the latest report from NPD, and it is behind only Kingdom Hearts III in the list of best-selling games of the year so far.

The only EA BioWare game to sell more than Anthem in its launch month was Mass Effect 3; the latter divided critics due to its ending, but it's fair to say that Anthem has received a cooler reception overall.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the month is that Bandai Namco's Jump Force was right behind Anthem in NPD's best-seller chart. Indeed, its launch month is the third highest ever achieved by a game from the Japanese publisher.

4A Games' Metro: Exodus didn't even reach the top five, despite launching at the very start of the month. The Deep Silver published title finished the month in eighth position, although it did set a franchise record, surpassing the launch month sales of Metro: Last Light by almost 50%.

Overall, dollar sales of tracked console, portable and PC software reached $457 million in February 2019, according to NPD, up 15% compared to the same month last year. The hardware market declined, dropping 12% year-on-year to $277 million.

However, while Sony and Microsoft's platforms are fully mature, Nintendo continued to see great returns from the Switch; it was Nintendo's best February for hardware dollar sales since 2011, the heyday of the Wii, and the Switch was the best-selling platform of the month overall.

Altogether, spending tracked spending on hardware, software, accessories and game cards reached $1 billion in February 2019, up 4% year-on-year.

Below is NPD's top 20 best-selling games chart for February 2019:

  • 1. Anthem^
  • 2. Jump Force
  • 3. Kingdom Hearts III
  • 4. Far Cry New Dawn
  • 5. Red Dead Redemption II
  • 6. Resident Evil 2 2019
  • 7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
  • 8. Metro: Exodus^
  • 9. NBA 2K19
  • 10. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII^
  • 11. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
  • 12. Mario Kart 8*
  • 13. Grand Theft Auto V
  • 14. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
  • 15. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
  • 16. Minecraft#
  • 17. Super Mario Party*
  • 18. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
  • 19. Madden NFL 19^
  • 20. Marvel's Spider-Man

* Digital sales not included
^ PC digital sales not included
# Minecraft digital sales on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One included

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Matthew Handrahan

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Matthew Handrahan joined GamesIndustry in 2011, bringing long-form feature-writing experience to the team as well as a deep understanding of the video game development business. He previously spent more than five years at award-winning magazine gamesTM.