Nintendo Switch Dominates Hardware, Software Sales in July (Analyst)

By Stefanie Fogel

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Nintendo is having a good summer. The Japanese video game company is the top-selling full game publisher for the month of July, and for 2018 in general, according to market research company The NPD Group.

The Nintendo Switch-exclusive role-playing game “Octopath Traveler” was the best-selling game of July 2018. This marks the second consecutive month a Nintendo exclusive has topped the chart; “Mario Tennis Aces” was the best-seller in June. Half of July’s top 10 best-sellers are Nintendo exclusives, NPD said.

“ is the only platform showing year-on-year growth in full-game dollar sales with gains of nearly 70 percent when compared to a year ago, despite digital sales on Nintendo platforms not currently being tracked by ,” said analyst Mat Piscatella. “Year-to-date sales of full-game software on Nintendo Switch have more than doubled when compared to a year ago.”

The Switch console is also performing well. It was the best-selling hardware platform in July in both dollars and units sold, NPD said. This is the seventh month Switch has led in hardware sales since its March 2017 launch, and the first since December 2017. Overall, unit sales of Nintendo hardware reached its highest peak for a July month since 2009 when the Wii was on store shelves.

Just because the Switch is doing very well doesn’t mean its competitors are doing poorly. Xbox One sales grew nearly 50% in July and have risen more than 60% year-to-date, NPD said. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 4 continues to be the best-selling console year-to-date.

Overall, NPD said July 2018 video game spending across hardware, software, accessories, and game cards grew 14% to $749 million compared to a year ago, while year-to-date spending is up 17% to $6.8 billion.