The most popular video games in July 2021 have been announced, and Nintendo’s Switch exclusives topped the sales rankings, while Activision Blizzard remained in second place. The summer months are the weakest for video game sales, but the few new titles that come out get more attention than they would have gotten during the busier Christmas season.
Nintendo’s hybrid console has been a huge hit over the last year, with the Switch on track to outsell the Wii, the company’s all-time best-selling home platform. Nintendo’s income dropped somewhat in the most recent fiscal quarter, owing to the aforementioned summer slump and the reality that it can’t keep up its strong sales levels indefinitely. Some Nintendo titles appear to be stuck in the monthly charts. Games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continue to sell well, with a Nintendo Switch attach rate of over 30% for the 2017 port.
The NPD Group has revealed sales data for video games in the United States for July 2021, and Nintendo Switch exclusives account for nearly half of the top 20 entries. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is the top game of the month, according to NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella on Twitter.
While fans were originally unhappy to discover that Skyward Sword would be the sole Zelda 35th anniversary game released this year, it’s clear that a large number of them showed out to play the updated version of Link’s Skyloft adventures. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the #1 game in June, has slipped to #11 on the PlayStation Store.
Last month, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War was again the second best-selling game. The bestselling game of the year is now Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, while MLB: The Show 21 has surpassed Resident Evil Village to claim the #2 place in 2021.
The state of California sued Activision Blizzard in July, which was followed by several public allegations of sexual harassment and workplace abuse inside the firm. Because the issue with Activision Blizzard only became known at the end of the month, the above numbers largely reflect sales before that information became public.
US NPD SW – MLB The Show 21 surpassed Resident Evil: Village to become the 2nd best-selling game of 2021. Year-to-date sales of MLB The Show 21 are the highest in franchise history.
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) August 13, 2021
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin came in third place in July, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Minecraft rounding out the top five. Even with the increased competition of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to deal with, the Switch’s library is still performing exceptionally well in terms of sales.
Despite the fact that Microsoft and Sony’s current-gen systems are selling as well as they can, given the ongoing hardware shortages, Switch-exclusive titles continue to dominate monthly charts. It’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo can maintain this pace throughout the year or if the day will come when everyone who wanted to buy Animal Crossing New: Horizons and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has already done so.