July 2013 NPD: NCAA tops the charts, and Minecraft remains strong

NCAA tops the charts, no surprise. But Minecraft for Xbox 360 takes second place.

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Americans sure do love football. NCAA Football 14--the last game in the series before EA Sports moves to the more generic "College Football" name--topped the charts. The retail version of Minecraft for Xbox 360 managed to jump a spot on the list from #3 to #2 proving that Notch's blocky build 'em up shows no sign of slowing down. Naughty Dog's PS3-exclusive The Last of Us drops from #1 to #3, but it's reassuring that people seem to like good games.

Once again, Nintendo 3DS is the best-selling system for the month. Odd to think that the console was so troubled at launch, no? Nintendo is certainly hoping for a similar turnaround with Wii U. “July 2013 was another positive month for 3DS software sales, with strong double-digit growth in both units and dollars," NPD industry analyst, Liam Callahan said. "Besides launches like Shin Megami Tensei IV, growth was driven by continued success from games that have launched over the past few months like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.”

According to Nintendo of America, Animal Crossing sold over 660K units so far, while Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon has over 820K in sales.

Here's the chart:

    Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; new releases bolded)

  • NCAA Football 14 (360, PS3)
  • Minecraft (360)
  • The Last of Us (PS3)
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, PC, Wii U)
  • Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)
  • Far Cry 3 (360, PS3, PC)
  • Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us (360, PS3, Wii U)
  • NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)
  • Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (360, Wii, DS, PS3, 3DS, Wii U, Vita, PC)

Once again, be mindful that "these sales figures represent new physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories, which account for roughly 50 percent of the total consumer spend on games."

Interestingly, NPD points out that a strong-seller that just barely missed the top 10 was Grand Theft Auto 4: The Complete Edition. "Clearly this is an indication that gamers who missed Grand Theft Auto IV are catching up before Grand Theft Auto V launches in September," Callahan concluded.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    August 15, 2013 3:50 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, July 2013 NPD: NCAA tops the charts, and Minecraft remains strong.

    NCAA tops the charts, no surprise. But Minecraft for Xbox 360 takes second place.

    • reply
      August 15, 2013 6:45 PM

      In this sentence:

      "According to Nintendo of America, Animal Crossing sold over 660K units so far, while Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon has over 820K in sales."

      Is it possible that those are the sales for that month and not the total "so far"? Because I heard somewhere that Animal Crossing has sold something like 6 million worldwide! A bunch of those must have been in the US? (Of course I might have just heard the wrong number for worldwide sales... not sure).

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