The NPD Group has released their full North American sales data for July 2021, and it was a good month for the industry, with players spending $4.6 billion on games, additional content, and hardware, representing a year-on-year increase of 10 percent. On the hardware front, the PS5 came out on top in terms of dollar sales (rebounding after coming second to Xbox Series X/S in June) while Switch was again #1 in total unit sales. Overall, it was the most lucrative July for video game hardware sales since the heyday of the Wii in 2008.
For software, it was a good month for Nintendo, as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD topped the chart and Monster Hunter Stories 2 came in at the third position. The only other new addition to the charts was NEO: The World Ends with You, which debuted at #16. Meanwhile, top June debut Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart dropped to #11, while Mario Golf: Super Rush actually held stronger at #6, perhaps showing the PS5 still doesn’t have the install base to give exclusives long-term legs.
Here are July's top 20 games according to NPD:
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Minecraft
- Mario Golf: Super Rush
- MLB The Show 21
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2)
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Neo: The World Ends with You
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Pokémon Sword & Shield
- Resident Evil Village
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
And here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2021 thus far:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- MLB The Show 21
- Resident Evil Village
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Monster Hunter Rise
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Minecraft
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Can anything stop the Switch steamroller? When even a remaster of a game like Skyward Sword, which has its fans, but certainly isn’t universally praised, can top the charts, you know you’re hot.
About the author: Professional writer of trivial things. Nathan has been covering games, entertainment, and online culture for over a decade with bylines at IGN, GameSpy, Cracked, Uproxx, ComicBook, and more. Joined Wccftech gaming team in 2017, and has written hundreds of game reviews and thousands of news stories since.
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