Hardware Sales Help Offset Software Declines In U.S.

Strong hardware sales (lead by PlayStation 4) offset a decline in software sales in the U.S. during the month of July, the NPD Group said in a statement today. Hardware sales in July 2014 doubled over July 2013, stemming from growth of the eighth generation consoles.

“When combining life-to-date sales of Xbox One and PS4 after nine months, and comparing them to the combined totals of nine months of sales for Xbox 360 and PS3, sales of the newest consoles are larger than the prior generation by close to 80%,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan.

Moving on, the top-10 best-sellers in the U.S. during the month of June were as follows:

 Tracking period: July 6th – August 2nd, 2014

July is typically seen as a quiet month for software sales in general, but this July was even quieter than usual, Callahan said, owing to the absence of NCAA Football, which is a title that normally launches in July but is no longer being produced. Callahan also noted that July usually only accounts for 5% of annual sales.

Meanwhile, Nintendo added that Mario Kart 8 has crossed sales of 1 million units in North America alone.

The NPD Group added that the system with the best-selling games on a single platform during July was the Nintendo 3DS. Tomodachi Life, Pokémon Y, Pokémon X and Mario Kart 7 all make the top-10 software list if you count sales on a single platform. With the addition of Mario Kart 8, five of the top-10 SKUs in July were published by Nintendo.

However, “The top ten games in July 2014 represented 20 percent less unit volume than seen in July 2013.”