Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut Debuts High, PS5 #1 in Dollar Sales in August Says NPD

The NPD Group has released their full North American sales data for August 2021, and the industry hot streak continues, with players spending $4.4 billion on games, additional content, and hardware, representing a year-on-year increase of 7 percent. On the hardware front, the PS5 came out on top in terms of dollar sales while Switch was again #1 in total unit sales. Overall, it was the most lucrative August for video game hardware sales since the heyday of the Wii in 2008.

For software, Madden NFL 22 was, as usual, king of August, but Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut came in strong at #2. The game was ranked 110th the previous month, so Sony’s new strategy of refreshing games with director’s cuts seems to be a winning one. Meanwhile, Humankind debuted surprisingly well at #4 and Nintendo continued their hot streak, monopolizing 9 of the top 20 spots, despite not releasing any major new games in August.

Here are August's top 20 games according to NPD:

1. Madden NFL 22
2. Ghost of Tsushima (including Director’s Cut)
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
4. Humankind
5. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
6. Mario Kart 8
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
8. Minecraft
9. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
10. MLB The Show 21
11. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
12. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
13. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
14. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
15. Pokemon Sword & Shield
16. Mortal Kombat 11
17. Super Mario 3D World
18. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
19. Mario Golf: Super Rush
20. Super Mario Party

And here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2021 thus far:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
2. MLB The Show 21
3. Resident Evil Village
4. Madden NFL 22
5. Super Mario 3D World
6. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
7. Mario Kart 8
8. Monster Hunter Rise
9. Minecraft
10. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

It’s still the calm before the storm – will any of the games above hold on once Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Halo arrive? We shall see.