US sales show love for fighting games and Nintendo Switch

It’s official – US sales figures show gamers still love their fighting games, and Nintendo are doing something right with the Switch.

Market research company NPD Group released US video game sales figures for June 2017 confirming that the video game industry is going strong, with a 7% rise in sales from $US 712 million this time last year to $US 765 million now.  As impressive as these numbers are, the truth is most likely higher, with NPD only tracking major platforms and titles, and missing data from digital sales of certain titles.

The biggest increase in sales were in consoles, a 27 percent increase from last year from $US 182 million to $US 231 million, due to the Nintendo Switch and Sony’s new gold 1TB slim PS4.

The top two selling games in June were Tekken 7 and Injustice 2, with three Nintendo Switch games making the top ten – Arms (also a fighting game), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 taking 5^th, 6^th and 7^th places respectively.

Here are the top 20 video games sold in the US in June 2017:

1. Tekken 7
2. Injustice 2
3. Grand Theft Auto V
4. Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
5. Arms*
6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
7. Mario Kart 8*
8. Overwatch*
9. NBA 2K17
10. Horizon Zero Dawn
11. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
12. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
13. MLB 17: The Show
14. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
15. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
16. Battlefield 1
17. Minecraft
18. The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind*
19. FIFA 17
20. Forza Horizon 3

*- digital sales not included in sales figures

It is not surprising to see the Nintendo Switch doing so well in the United States, given Japan is also suffering a Switch shortage.  For fighting game fans, 2017 is shaping up to be a great year, with several other big titles set to launch in the coming months including Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite and Blade Strangers.