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 Division takes 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 reach 69 million units sold by 2019. These numbers are likely to shoot up even further if rumors are correct about a new 4k PS4 release. The full top 10 list is as follows:
- Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
- Far Cry: Primal (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U)
- Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
- UFC 2 (PS4, Xbox One)
- MLB 16: The Show (PS4, PS3)
- Pokken Tournament (Wii U)
- NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
- Minecraft (Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, PS3)
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 that The Division is performing much better than you might think. Whether or not you've bought into the hype that preceded the game's release, The Division has outperformed every other Tom Clancy title 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 HD and Pokken Tournament, are both exclusive titles to a platform that only this year surpassed 12 million units in sales, which makes their placements all the more impressive. A Nintendo spokesperson commented on the performance of Twilight Princess, claiming that the title has outperformed every first-party Wii U game in first month sales, other than Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Maker, and Mario 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.