For the month of September, the National Purchase Diary (NPD) has assembled a list of the best selling retail and in most cases digital sales for video games. September was a doozy of a month, seeing major releases like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and more.
In terms of software, Spider-Man swings high above the competition. Sony had previously put the game at 3.3 million copies sold worldwide within three days of release. Extrapolating that out to the U.S.’s usual percentage and assuming the game just didn’t stop selling, it is probably around two million in the U.S. for the month of September, though I am sure Sony will be along shortly to give more concrete numbers. The NPD group does say the game is the third best selling title of 2018 already.
Marvel’s Spider-Man’s launch month sales are 37 percent higher than the combined launch month sales of every other Spider-Man game since the NPD first started tracking retail sales in 1995.
Sports titles pepper the top ten at places 2, 4, 6, and 10 with NBA 2K19, FIFA 19, Madden 19, and NHL 19 respectively.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, despite being released at the extreme tail end of the September accounting period nearly a week into October, did remarkably well to end up as the third best selling game of the month. Despite a kind of quiet launch, Shadow of the Tomb Raider lands directly in the middle of the top ten.
Super Mario Party finds itself in the bottom half of the top ten as the only Switch exclusive on the list until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at number 14.
The full top 20 list for September is below:
| Marvel’s Spider-Man | 1 | |
| NBA 2K19 | 2 | |
| Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey | 3 | |
| FIFA 19 | 4 | |
| Shadow Of The Tomb Raider | 5 | |
| Madden NFL 19 | 6 | |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 7 | |
| Destiny 2 | 8 | |
| Super Mario Party* | 9 | |
| NHL 19 | 10 | |
| Dragon Quest XI: Echoes Of An Elusive Age | 11 | |
| WWE 2K19 | 12 | |
| Grand Theft Auto V | 13 | |
| Mario Kart 8* | 14 | |
| Naruto To Boruto: Shinobi Striker | 15 | |
| Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege | 16 | |
| Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy | 17 | |
| Super Mario Odyssey* | 18 | |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild* | 19 | |
| Minecraft* | 20 |
(Games with an * did not have digital sales tracked.)
Accounting the 61 months Grand Theft Auto V has been on the market, September 2018 is only the 13th time it has failed to appear in the top ten, but it has always appeared in the top 20.
In terms of hardware, PlayStation 4 is the best selling console in both units sold and revenue, ending the Switch’s several-month streak. Xbox One sales are up 30 percent from the previous year, likely owing to Forza Horizon 4’s strong sales.
The next NPD for October will include releases like Red Dead Redemption II, Mega Man 11, Soulcalibur VI, and more.
