Today, Circana (formerly NPD) released the year-to-date numbers for the top 20 best-selling premium games via Executive Director & Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella.
According to the data (measured in Dollar sales, physical, and digital using data shared from publishers), sports continue to dominate the charts, especially EA titles.
In August, Madden NFL 25 overthrew EA Sports College Football 25, claiming the top spot and bumping the returning sports title back to number two, and the bundle of the two (EA Sports MVP bundle) managing to rank fourth. Star Wars Outlaws made up the spot in between, with Elden Ring rounding out the top five.
Despite falling to number two last month, EA Sports College Football 25 is still the top-selling game of 2024, measuring from December 30, 2023, to August 31, 2024. Two shooters, Helldivers II and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III make up the two and three spots with the EA Sports MVP bundle and Elden Ring holding the same spots for the year that they did for August.
Impressively, even though it only released last month, Madden NFL 25 has already catapulted itself to the 12th best-selling game of the year. This is also the 25th consecutive year that the Madden franchise was the best-selling title for the month in which it was released.
The report also states that console spending dropped 36% when compared to last year to $208 million. PS5 once again led the hardware market in sales, with Xbox Series coming in second.
For PlayStation exclusive titles, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Visions of Mana stood out for August, with the former ranking in fourth and the latter rounding out the top 10. Xbox exclusive titles look pretty similar to last months, with Star Wars Outlaws being the only new title in the rankings, coming in at number three.
