NPD: NCAA 13 Has Big Launch, 3DS Sales Increase

The NPD Group has revealed the top ten best-selling games in the United States for the month of July.

The best-selling titles of the month, in order, are:

1. NCAA Football 13 (360, PS3)
2. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSV, PC)
3. The Amazing Spider-Man (360, PS3, 3DS, NDS, Wii)
4. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3)
5. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)**
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, DS, Wii, PC)**
7. Assassin's Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC)
8. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC)
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)**
10. Dead Island (360, PS3, PC)**

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, Pokemon Conquest would be among the top 10 for the month if the chart included individual SKU sales rather than combining sales from all platforms. Frazier notes that Batman: Arkham City and Dead Island “both received a boost in sales due to the release of Game of the Year editions.”

Frazier adds that while sales for hardware and software were down for the month, sales of accessories were up, “driven by increases in points and subscriptions game cards as well as the Skylanders character packs.” She adds that “Between the characters that are packaged with the Skylanders game and the sales of the separate character packs, over 25 million individual Skylanders figures have been sold through at retail in the U.S. since the launch of the game in October 2011.”

The NPD Group expects sales to rise in the coming month thanks to the launch of Madden NFL 13, 3DS XL and New Super Mario Bros. 2, but notes that “while August is typically ‘Madden Month,’ Madden NFL ’13 launches on August 28th which falls into the September reporting period. So, like last year, Madden will impact September results instead of August.”

On the hardware front, Frazier notes that all platforms had decreased sales this month other than 3DS and DS, which saw increases in sales compared to June. 3DS is also the only system to see a sales increase compared to this month in 2011.

Microsoft reports that “Xbox 360 maintains its lead in the U.S. console market, marking 19 months as the top-selling current-generation console in the United States.” 203,000 units were sold in July, more units than any other gaming hardware. “This marks the 17th consecutive month that Xbox 360 has held more than a 40 percent share of current-generation console sales in the United States,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Nintendo says 3DS saw a 44% increase in sales compared to July 2011 and adds that more than 260,000 units of portable hardware were sold in July.

This story will be updated as we receive a statement from Sony.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com