In January 2017, total industry sales in the United States were down 4% year-on-year to $610.7 million. By category, software was up 14% to $312.5 million, hardware was down 19% to $127.1 million, and accessories were down 17% to $155 million.
NPD analyst Sam Naji says Resident Evil 7 was to thank for the increase in software spending last month. “With only five days in the market, Resident Evil 7 biohazard was the best-selling game in January,” Naji added. “The last time Capcom had the best-selling game of the month (in dollar sales) was in March 2009 with Resident Evil 5.” It also saw the “2nd best Jan launch for PS4, Xbox One titles.”
Compared to January 2016, the top five games of January 2017 earned 17% more.
Touching on hardware, Naji said, “The PlayStation 4 was the best-selling hardware (in units sold) during January 2017; and for the fourth consecutive month, PlayStation 4 Slim System 500GB Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Bundle was the top-selling PS4 sku (in units sold).” Xbox One finished in second, with the NES Classic Edition a surprise third place finisher.
Here’s the top 10 best-selling games of January 2017 (January 1 to January 29) in the US through physical and digital retailers, keeping in mind that Battle.net sales weren’t included for Overwatch:
- Resident Evil 7 biohazard
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Battlefield 1
- NBA 2K17
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
- Madden NFL 17
- Watch Dogs 2
- Overwatch
- FIFA 17
NPD analyst Mat Piscatella went on NeoGAF and revealed the top 10 PS4 games of January 2017:
- Resident Evil 7 biohazard
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Battlefield 1
- NBA 2K17
- Madden NFL 17
- Watch Dogs 2
- Tales of Berseria
- Final Fantasy XV
As for portable consoles, the top 10 best-selling games of January 2017 were all on Nintendo 3DS and published by Nintendo.
Are you surprised to see Gravity Rush 2 absent from the NPD chart and the North American and European PlayStation Store charts for January?
[Source: Games Industry, Venture Beat, NeoGAF (1), (2), NPD]
