August 2021 NPD: Ghost of Tsushima returns to dominate August game sales

Gaming fans in the United States spent $4.37 billion on their hobby in August, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. That is up 7% year-over-year thanks to ongoing demand for new hardware and a strong month for software. As with results for the last few months, this indicates that the games industry in the U.S. is at least maintaining and even building on its unprecedented gains from the heights of the pandemic’s stay-at-home orders.

“August 2021 consumer spending across video game hardware, content, and accessories grew 7% when compared to a year ago, reaching an August record $4.4 billion,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. “Year-to-date consumer spending totaled $37.9 billion, a 13% increase when compared to the same period in 2020.”

The strong results send a message that consumers still view gaming as a safe bet when it comes to spending their entertainment budget. And that is safe both in terms of getting a good value from the products and safe as in avoiding COVID complications like the Delta variant.

Let’s get to the game charts.

August 2021 NPD: The top 20 best-selling games of the month in the United States

NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers. Not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesn’t share its first-party sales, and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales.

One of the key things to note about the sales charts is just how predictable so much of it is. As usual, Nintendo represents nearly half of the top 20 — and that is without including digital sales for any of those games. But it’s also worth noting that Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales continues to hang around the top 10.

Sony would certainly love for its games to have the kind of staying power that Nintendo enjoys, and it’s off to a good start with its Spider-Man games. It’s likely hoping it can replicate that success with the newly announced Wolverine game from the Spider-Man developer Insomniac.

Madden NFL 22

Madden’s sales dominance is a near-certainty. And that continued in 2021.

“Madden NFL 22 debuted as the best-selling game of August, while also ranking 4th among the best-selling games of 2021 year to date,” said Piscatella. “This is the 22nd consecutive year that a Madden NFL franchise release was the best-selling title of its launch month.”

Maybe that’s why EA seems uninterested in fundamentally improving the game each year. Madden scored a 68 on review-aggregation site Metacritic.

Ghost of Tsushima

PlayStation 5 owners are hungry for new content. That is evident by the success of Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut.

“Ghost of Tsushima ranked as the second best-selling game of August, after finishing at No. 110 on the best-selling titles chart in July,” said Piscatella. “The launch of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 drove the change.”

Humankind

Sega just re-released Sonic Colors in September, and we’ll see how that performs next month. But for now, Sega as a PC publisher continues to thrive thanks to games like Humankind.

“Humankind ranked first among tracked PC titles in August spending, while placing fourth on the overall best-selling titles chart,” said Piscatella. “Humankind currently ranks as the fifth best-selling tracked PC title of 2021 year-to-date.”

The Last of Us Part II

Turns out that many gamers were waiting for a sale before playing the latest Naughty Dog epic.

“The Last of Us Part II jumped to No. 10 on the PlayStation best-selling titles chart, after ranking 23rd in July. The title was price promoted across several retail outlets in August.”

Top 10 best-selling games so far this year

Top 10 best-selling games of the last 12 months

August 2021 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Nintendo games in the U.S.

August 2021 NPD: Top 10 best-selling PlayStation-platform games in the U.S.

August 2021 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Xbox-platform games in the U.S.