Mario Tennis Aces Leads June 2018 NPD Software Sales

The much-belated NPD results for June 2018 revealed that Nintendo led both software and hardware in North America for the month. Mario Tennis Aces was the best-selling game of the month, while the re-released NES Classic Edition shot to the top of hardware sales.

Mario Tennis Aces‘ surprise success makes it the best Nintendo-published tennis game debut since the original Mario Tennis back in August 2000. Nintendo itself was also the leading publisher for the month above all others, thanks in part to the continued success of the Switch.

“Nintendo Switch was the only platform that produced software sales growth in June, with dollar sales more than doubling those of June 2017,” says analyst Mat Piscatella. “Year-to-date software sales on Nintendo Switch are also more than double those of a year ago.” Following behind Aces was Sony’s God of War, repeating its ‘number two’ ranking from May 2018.

On the hardware front, the NES Classic Edition relaunched late in the month and still outsold all other contemporary consoles. It’s also the first time an NES system topped the NPD since tracking began in 1995. Meanwhile, the Xbox One and Switch saw growth year-over-year by almost twice as much and over 50 percent each. PlayStation 4 was the best-selling console absent the NES Classic and remains the best-selling console of the year, crossing the 80 million mark worldwide in the process.

Consumers spent $350 million on hardware, $374 million on software, and $353 million on accessories. The multi-platform and free-to-play Fortnite drove the growth of hardware and accessories upwards at 52 percent and 38 percent respectively from the same month in 2017. The full list of Top 20 best-selling games for June 2018 can be seen below.