The NPD Group has released their full North American sales data for June 2021, and it was a solid month overall, with players spending $4.9 billion on games, additional content, and hardware, representing a year-on-year increase of 5 percent. On the hardware front, the big surprise was the Xbox Series X/S – if you count the two consoles together as a platform, they were #1 in June in terms of dollar sales (the Switch still sold more units). What spurred this isn’t entirely clear, but it seems Microsoft may finally getting a decent flow of Xbox Series units onto shelves.
On the software front, it was Sony’s month, as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart nabbed the top spot. Other new additions to the list include Mario Golf: Super Rush at #3 and Scarlet Nexus at #5. Meanwhile, last month’s #1 game, Resident Evil Village, dropped to #6 and the now-multiplatform MLB The Show 21 held surprisingly strong at #4.
Here are June’s top 20 games according to NPD:
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Mario Golf: Super Rush
- MLB The Show 21
- Scarlet Nexus
- Resident Evil Village
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Minecraft
- Spier-Man: Miles Morales
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
- Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Pokemon Sword & Shield
- Sea of Thieves
And here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2021 thus far:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Resident Evil Village
- MLB The Show 21
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Monster Hunter Rise
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Outriders
- Minecraft
It seems like we may actually have a real horserace developing between Microsoft and Sony’s next-gen consoles. Can Xbox Series X/S rack up some more wins while the PS5 is supply constrained? We shall see.
