State of Decay 2 Leads May NPD, Detroit Opens to Strong Sales

Despite a relatively dry summer release schedule, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony all had big months according to the May NPD. State of Decay 2 topped the charts, Sony continued to do extremely well, and Nintendo sold a healthy amount of software. Even though the big three all had record-breaking Mays for their respective consoles, other publishers also did well too. Total revenue, hardware, and accessory sales were all up over May 2017.

May NPD: Microsoft

While the Xbox One hardware had its best May ever according to the May NPD, State of Decay 2 ended up being Microsoft’s biggest winner. Not only was it the best-selling game of May 2018, but it also nearly doubled the launch month sales of the original State of Decay. Microsoft foreshadowed this victory when they announced that State of Decay 2 had seen a million players in a week.

May NPD: Sony

As has been the case in recent months, the PS4 was the best-selling console in May 2018. God of War continued to dominate after its launch month, only trailing State of Decay 2 as the highest selling game. God of War is also only trailing Far Cry 5 as 2018’s top-selling title. Detroit: Become Human came in third place just behind God of War, selling 20% higher than Heavy Rain‘s launch month sales. These games helped propel Sony to the top publisher of the month.

May NPD: Nintendo

Switch software grew 90% over last May and gave Nintendo their highest software revenue since the Wii in 2011. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo had quite a few titles in the top 20 list of best-selling games. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (5), Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition (7), Mario Kart 8 (9), Super Mario Odyssey (13), and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (14) all cracked the list. The 32GB Switch with Neon Red and Blue JoyCons was the month’s best-selling hardware SKU in both dollar and unit sales and helped give the system its best May yet.