The numbers are in folks, and the month of July belongs to the Xbox One and Madden 17.

For the second straight month (and its first hardware victory this year, last month the 3DS won) the Xbox One has defeated the PlayStation 4 in hardware sales.

On the software front it was jukemanina, as EA’s juggernaut Madden 17 claimed the top spot.

Software:

 

1. Madden NFL 17
2. No Man’s Sky*
3. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
4. Grand Theft Auto V
5. Overwatch**
6. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
7. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
8. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
9. Minecraft*
10. Destiny: The Taken King

 

*No digital sales.

**No Battle.net digital sales.

Important to note: the NPD report now includes digital sales (in the US) in addition to physical sales. However, this only includes digital sales from participating publishers. Publishers such as Sony, Microsoft, and Bethesda aren’t included, among many more.

Hardware:

The NPD report says: “Total hardware spending came to $178 million, a decline of 6 percent compared to last year,” said Naji. “The unit growth in sales for the Xbox One and the 3DS was not enough to offset the decline in spending on the PS4, Wii U, and older consoles. The decline in unit spending was also compounded by the 7 percent decline in the average retail price (ARP) for consoles and a 22 percent decline in the ARP for portables.”

“The release of the Xbox One S helped to generate a 37 percent growth in unit sales and a 25 percent growth in dollar revenue for the Xbox One brand,” said NPD analyst Naji. “In its first month on the market, the Xbox One S 2TB White was the second-best selling hardware SKU, despite lacking a bundled title. In total the Xbox One S accounted for almost a third of all console hardware units sold.”

“Following the strong growth in units sales for the 3DS during July 2016, this was another month for solid sales,” said Naji. “Unit spending grew by 83 percent resulting with consumers spending an additional $6 million compared to last year. Consumer interest in the Pokémon franchise in the wake of the mobile game, Pokémon Go, and the release of Monster Hunter: Generations most likely caused the increase in sales.”

And that’s all she wrote for August folks. See you at the next NPD report.

My Opinion:

The inclusion of digital has been a nice touch to the monthly NPD report, however, without digital numbers from some major players like 1st party Sony and Microsoft games, and other big publishers, the numbers are a bit skewed, and therefore less valuable.

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Tyler Fischer is a Senior Writer for MONG who plays video games when he’s not busy researching alien conspiracy theories at 2AM. You can find him on Twitter.