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The NPD figures for February 2016 are now live for public consumption and debate. Once again, the PlayStation 4 was the top selling hardware in North America. Shockingly, Far Cry Primal was the best selling software for February in the region.
Software Sales for February 2016
  1. Far Cry: Primal (PS4, Xbox One)
  2. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
  3. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
  4. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS4, Xbox One)
  5. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
  6. Lego Marvel Avengers (PS4, 360, Xbox One, Wii U, PS3, 3DS, Vita)
  7. Street Fighter V (PS4)
  8. Minecraft (360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
  9. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS)
  10. Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)


There are some interesting things to note about the above software sales. First up, sales of Far Cry Primal were better than sales of Far Cry 4 during the same launch window. Combined sales of Fire Emblem Fates' games would place it at number 3 on the above list. It's also reported that the sales of just the PlayStation 4 version of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm outsold all of Street Fighter V. Speaking of Street Fighter, Street Fighter IV launched with 849,000 units sold and sales of Street Fighter V are nowhere near that figure.

On the hardware side of things, Sony is still pleased with their unstoppable force.
“We would like to thank our fans and partners for making PlayStation 4 the top-selling hardware platform and the software sales leader in February, according to NPD. We continued to see strong year-over-year sales growth for PS4 hardware and software and are truly humbled by the support and enthusiasm from gamers. We will continue to deliver amazing gaming experiences with the upcoming launches of Ratchet & Clank, MLB The Show 16 and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.”

Nintendo is also pretty thrilled with how Fire Emblem Fates is performing.
"February was a fantastic month for Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, the newest entries in the critically acclaimed strategy RPG series from Nintendo. The games took two top-10 spots on the best-sellers list from the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. video game sales. In little more than a week, the two versions of Fire Emblem Fates totaled nearly 400,000 combined units sold, including physical and digital versions. This far outpaces 2013’s Fire Emblem Awakening game, the series’ previous record-holder in the United States, and is a testament to both the longstanding popularity and rapidly growing fan base of the franchise.

Momentum should continue with today’s release of Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation, a digital-only third version of the game available for purchase to anyone who owns either Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright or Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. Fans have weekly DLC to look forward to purchasing, as well.

February also saw the digital debut of the 2D Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Yellow games in Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. The games instantly shot to the top of the charts, and together, combined to break the first-week Nintendo eShop sales record previously held by Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

With classic graphics and timeless gameplay, these versions of the original Pokémon adventure are proving to be a popular way for fans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series."

Microsoft is quite jazzed about their software lineup.
"The unmatched lineup of games available on Xbox One continues to generate a strong response from gamers as seen through global Xbox Live engagement and exclusive game sales. Compared to February 2015, exclusive Xbox One U.S. game sales drove a 49 percent increase and the total number of hours spent gaming on Xbox One worldwide rose 93 percent. Earlier this week, we launched the Xbox One ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division’ Bundle to coincide with Ubisoft’s release of ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division’ and looking ahead to this spring, fans can look forward to the upcoming release of the highly-anticipated ‘Quantum Break,’ launching on both Xbox One and Windows 10 on April 5, as well as the built-for-Windows 10 visual showcase, ‘Forza Motorsport 6: Apex.’ We are truly grateful to our fans for choosing to play the greatest games lineup in Xbox history across Windows 10 devices, and are excited to share more in the coming months on our full lineup of holiday exclusives as well as new innovations, features and experiences coming to Xbox One, Windows 10 and Xbox Live.” – Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Marketing, Microsoft

Overall, retails sales are down 12% compared to February 2015, hardware sales are down 23%, and retail game sales are down 10% overall compared to 2015. Keep in mind that the NPD only tracks physical copies sold for software and only for the North American region.

(Fire Emblem Fates screen via Nintendo Life, Some NPD info via VentureBeat)