With the PlayStation 4 nearing its fifth anniversary, we had expected the Nintendo Switch to take the lead on Sony’s system in the United States hardware charts – but it’s just not happening yet. The Japanese giant’s popular platform enjoyed a fourth consecutive month in the throne in May, with leaked numbers painting a pretty picture for the format once again.
In fact, this was another record-breaking month for the PS4, with the system achieving its best ever May units tally since launch. As a whole, the industry achieved its highest ever hardware revenue total since all the way back in May 2014, so the takeaway is that all of the consoles are doing really well. Overall industry spend was up 13 per cent year-over-year for the period.
That increase is being driven by games like God of War, which is now the second best-selling game of the year, behind only the multiformat Far Cry 5. Fellow exclusive Detroit: Become Human is also off to a decent start, finishing third in the software charts – and achieving 20 per cent sales growth compared to Quantic Dream’s previous fastest seller, Heavy Rain.
Sony was actually May’s top-selling publisher, with MLB The Show 18 also continuing to perform a little further down the charts – although Ubisoft has generated more revenue overall in 2018 so far. With the Days of Play promotion running through June, it’d be difficult to bet against the PlayStation maker securing a fifth month at the top – and it still has a PS4 price cut up its sleeve.
NPD Software Top 20: May 2018
- State of Decay 2
- God of War
- Detroit: Become Human
- Far Cry 5
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze*
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition*
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
- NBA 2K18
- MLB 18 The Show
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Super Mario Odyssey*
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
- FIFA 18**
- Overwatch**
- Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
- Assassin’s Creed: Origins
- Monster Hunter: World
NPD PS4 Software Top 10: May 2018
- God of War
- Detroit: Become Human
- Far Cry 5
- MLB 18 The Show
- Grand Theft Auto V
- FIFA 18
- NBA 2K18
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Overwatch
NPD Best Selling Games of 2018 So Far
- Far Cry 5
- God of War
- Monster Hunter: World
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Dragon Ball: FighterZ
- Grand Theft Auto V
- NBA 2K18
- MLB 18 The Show
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds**
* No digital sales included
** No PC digital sales included
[source venturebeat.com, via resetera.com]
Comments 36
Once again I have to ask why NPD decided to highlight the Switch Neon unit as best selling SKU by units and dollar revenue when its not the best selling system overall.
Such a weird, weird thing.
Also, hello State of Decay. How the hell did you do that?
And again, digital sales need to be accounted for all platforms now, as this is horribly unrepresentative of the market.
@Knuckles-Fajita Presumably the digital sales of certain platforms/publishers aren't included because they don't want them to be?
@Neolit What a fantastic quote.
It's bloody laughable that State of Decay 2 was top considering the state it launched in, and from a first party team too. Still it's promising signs for Days Gone since people aren't fed up of zombie games yet.
@get2sammyb But why? It makes your sales look worse than they are It's so stupid but whatever. Disproportionate and unrepresentative data is something I'm not fond of because it's not an accurate assessment of events.
But if nothing can be done then whatever I guess. At least they include SOME digital unlike other charts.
@Neolit I thought that game would do well on GamePass (Maybe they include those downloads given it does include digital) but it was also a budget game.
@adf86 They weren't a first party team at the time. In fact, State of Decay was basically an indie game that MS decided to treat like a bigger game than it is (Which didn't help its image).
Now they are first party though.
does it mean that god of war already sold 8 million? mhw shipped 7.9m but now its behind gow unless mhw sold more digital copies since npd only tracked physical copies sold.
@Knuckles-Fajita I have to imagine that's the case, because I don't think NPD would purposely exclude anyone — their job is to paint a precise picture of the US games industry, after all.
I don't think Bethesda allows digital sales to be shared either, but I could be wrong.
@Lekzie1 Remember that this is just US sales, where you're talking worldwide.
@adf86 Yeah, my instant thought was about Days Gone as well. More evidence, yet again, that sites like these are totally in a bubble completely removed from the rest of the market.
Heck, you wouldn't think Far Cry 5 was the best selling game of the year just looking at sites like ours. No way.
Happy to be on the winning team.
PlayStation Nation are winning the World Cup 💪
@get2sammyb For Bethesda that is especially odd because...PC...and their games seem to do better digitally on consoles than at retail...
@Fight_Teza_Fight PlayStation Nation for the win!
But, but, but crossplay. 😂
@PS_Nation Forget Cross-Play. All about Tiki-Taka. We’ll just play amongst ourself & then win. 😎
@Neolit Releasing games like State of Decay 2 and Sea of Thieves should be considered anti-consumer, games without content, full of micro transactions and unfinished.
@Neolit that burn was so good you lit the garbage on fire. Savage.
@Fight_Teza_Fight "Forget Cross-Play. All about Tiki-Taka. We’ll just play amongst ourself & then win."
Nice.
The god of war effect
@Neolit Ouch lol
@get2sammyb I think days gone is cool, I mean it's literally son of anarchy + the walking dead daryl. If the reviews is good (80-85 mc), I'll take it day one.
Not sure how reliable these are but:
PS4 - 221k
NSW - 166k
XB1 - 144k
@get2sammyb Let them keep chasing us, exhausting themselves on message boards & we’ll keep chalking up them NPD wins. Woohoo!
*The footie is getting to me 😅
Congrats to Sony and Playstation, they really do keep going from strength to strength. And just think that people said that the Xbox One X would be the unit that gave MS the edge that would mean it would pull ahead in the sales charts or make inroads to Sony. #4theplayers
Looks like good results for everyone!
PlayStation king of gaming.thanks to PlayStation for making me a day 1 hardcore gamer in 1995.god of war best PlayStation franchises ever word up son
How on earth did the bug ridden catastrophe that is State Of Decay 2 outsell so many great games?! Do Xbox owners actually like crap games or something?!
It shows that maybe MS knows its fanbase better than some people seem to think. When MS itself talks about publishing more games as a service as a opposed to more single player focused I'm sure it does so after having carefully researched the market. State of Decay 2 isn't my kind of game but clearly it has some appeal, Will be interested to see if it holds next month.
Greatness Forever - PlayStation
i don't get how it's continuing to increase year to year, in its 5th may, and with 80m already sold. maybe there are just a lot of people out there that wait for that one killer game, and god of war was it. in which case, whilst it's not a game i'm personally excited for, goodness knows what spiderman might do for ps4 in september if it reviews highly.
I love my switch and my ps4. But it looks like the switch is not having a good second year, after amazing first year. Hopefully they will pickup. The industry need a strong nintendo.
Switch is doing just fine.
They’re not riding the hype train.
Its definitely not a machine for constant AAAs, but did you ever buy one expecting it to be?
There a very varried mix of daily games added (containing plenty of gems, despite a fair bit of tripe too) and im certain we’ll have every hoped for title on this device.
Its successful enough for them to keep investing in developing their own titles for some time... and a poor Nintendo in house title is a rare thing indeed.
@Captain_crash199 its available for free with their subscription service and works on PC too.
No doubt this includes anyone who has aquired the right to play the game on either PC or Xbone... via sub or purchase.
Say what you will about State Of Decay, the game is fun as heck.
Nice to see a real console on top too!
State Of Decay outsells both God Of War & Detroit: Become Human.
Haha.
Wow, State of Decay2 did really good for itself. That's great because I find it to be a pretty good zombie game, and getting better all the time. They deserve that top spot.
@real_obsi NPD doesn't include the GamePass subscription, this is straight sell-through to consumers.
"Once again I have to ask why NPD decided to highlight the Switch Neon unit as best selling SKU by units and dollar revenue when its not the best selling system overall."
@Knuckles-Fajita Because it's being tracked correctly, by single SKU. PS4 is the best-selling system if you include the regular model, the slim model, and the pro model but it isn't an accurate way to gauge sales (MediaCreate splits PS4 and 4Pro sales for a reason). So that Nintendo SKU is showing true dollar revenue for one $300 system, Sony is showing revenue across up to 3 SKUs that cost up to $700 combined.
@Neolit love that quote
PS4 is doing what a great system does kill it.
@KelticDevil gow came out in April and if leaks are anything to go by sod 2 barely outsold it and that’s with sod 2 only being 30 and Detroit is a very niche kind of game but it still sold extremely well.
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