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September NPD: PS4 prevails, Wii U sales rise, and NBA 2K16 soars

It was an interesting month of September, with the PS4 beating out the Xbox One for the fifth consecutive month, Wii U showing signs of life on the back of Super Mario Maker, and NBA 2K16 rising above it all to lead the software retail charts.
Ozzie Mejia
Ozzie Mejia
4

September marked the start of the fall season and Sony kicked it off with a victory for the PlayStation 4. The PS4 once again beat out the Xbox One, but it was something of a Pyrrhic victory, since hardware and software sales are both down from last year. Hardware sales dipped to $313.5 million from last year's $431.2 million. Despite that, hardware looks to be on an upward trend.

"As an indication of positive momentum heading into the fourth quarter, the majority of hardware platforms increased their sales from August 2015 to September 2015 when comparing sales on a per-week basis," said the NPD Group's Liam Callahan. "All 8th generation consoles experienced double-digit growth when comparing sales on a per-week basis."

Yes, all 8th generation consoles. That includes the Wii U, as Nintendo did its happy dance over Wii U sales increasing by a whopping 110 percent in September over the month of August, which is credited almost entirely to the strength of Super Mario Maker. The Mario level creator rose to a #6 debut on the September NPD charts.

But the fall season means it's time for sports and the fall sports games dominated the month of September. Big Boss couldn't sneak past NBA 2K16 and Madden NFL 16, which finished in the first and second spots, respectively. That left Hideo Kojima's swansong, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to debut in third place. FIFA 16 and Destiny: The Taken King rounded out the top five.

September Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC; new releases in bold)

  • NBA 2K16 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
  • Madden NFL 16 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4, XBO, PS3, 360)
  • FIFA 16 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
  • Destiny: The Taken King (XBO, PS4, 360, PS3)
  • Super Mario Maker (NWU)
  • Disney Infinity 3.0 (360, NWU, XBO, PS4, PS3)
  • Mad Max (PS4, XBO)
  • NHL 16 (XBO, PS4, 360, PS3)
  • Minecraft (360, PS3, XBO, PS4)
Senior Editor
Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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