After Sony announced that the PlayStation 4 was the #1 selling system of December 2015 in the United States, the full NPD report for the month has been revealed, placing Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 as the #1 game.
Looking at the whole video game industry in the US during December 2015, total retail sales were down 1% year-over-year to $3.22 billion. As for individual categories, hardware was down 6% to $1.24 billion, software was down 3% to $1.21 billion, and accessories were up 10% to $762 million.
NPD analyst Liam Callahan revealed that December 2015 was the best month ever for PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U hardware unit sales:
“For December 2015, the 6 per cent decrease in sales versus December 2014 was driven by a 71 per cent drop in seventh generation hardware and the 32 per cent decrease in portable hardware despite the 4 per cent increase in eighth generation spending.”
“As an indication of the strength of the new consoles, December 2015 marked the best month to date of PS4 unit sales as well as the Xbox One. With growth over 2014 for both these consoles, 2015 was the best year for PS4 and Xbox One hardware unit sales.”
Callahan added, “December 2015 was the best month on record for PS4 and Xbox One, and the second-best for the Wii U in terms of new physical software unit sales.” It was also the best month of total eighth generation new physical software sales ever.
In terms of the top selling games of the month, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Star Wars Battlefront finished in 1st and 2nd, respectively, and each performed better on Xbox One (the NPD doesn’t include sales of games bundled with consoles, and both featured PlayStation 4 bundles). Additionally, new releases Rainbow Six Siege placed in 7th, while Just Cause 3 didn’t appear in the top 10.
Here’s the top 10 selling games for December 2015 (November 29 through January 2), which totals retail sales across all systems and includes Collector’s Editions, GOTY Editions, and bundles, but not those bundled with hardware (sales by platform are ranked in brackets from highest-selling to least-selling):
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
- Star Wars Battlefront (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
- Fallout 4 (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
- Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
- Rainbow Six: Siege (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
- Minecraft (360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
- Minecraft: Story Mode (360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
- FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
You can see November 2015’s NPD results over here.
[Source: Games Industry, GamesBeat]
