Humankind is August’s best-selling PC game

Humankind is one of my favorite games of 2021 so far, one I’ve been waiting for since its announcement in 2019 at Gamescom. Turns out, a lot of y’all were eager for it, too.

Market researcher The NPD Group said today that Humankind is the best-selling PC game for August, placing fourth on the overall sales chart. The 4X strategy game from Sega Europe and Amplitude Studios is the best-selling PC strategy game since 2020’s Crusader Kings III, The NPD Group says.

That’s a strong performance for a game that launched August 17, halfway through the reporting month. It shows that the PC gaming market still wants 4X strategy games (another good one, Old World, launched out of early access in July). It’s also a sign that Humankind’s main mechanic, changing civilizations as you advance from one era to another, found traction with players.

The NPD also said that Humankind is fifth on the best-selling PC games list for 2021, coming in behind Outriders, Resident Evil: Village, Sea of Thieves, and Halo: The Master Chief collection in its tracking. But analyst Mat Piscatella said in an email this doesn’t include all the different storefronts for PC gaming.

“Keep in mind though, PC tracking only includes Steam, and several of the top titles on Steam are from publishers not part of the Digital Leader Panel,” he said. “In addition, although Take-Two Interactive is part of the Digital Leader Panel and shares its digital sales data, its digital revenues are excluded when it comes to the best-selling title charts.”

What this basically means is that, regardless of how you measure it, Humankind has sold quite well for Sega Europe and Amplitude.