September 2022 NPD: Sports games top charts, hardware sales soar

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While the post-2021 bust continues for the games industry, hardware sales are looking particularly promising. According to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group, hardware spending is up, while year-on-year spending is still in the negative. Sports games are also taking their place as the fall best-sellers, as is typical. Other new games are reaching for the top of the charts, including Splatoon 3 and The Last of Us Part 1.

September 2022 Dollar Sales, Millions September
2021
September
2022
Change
Total Video Game Sales $4,260 $4,073 -4%
Video Game Content (Physical & Digital Full Game, DLC/MTX and Subscription consumer spending across Console, Cloud, Mobile*, Portable, PC and VR) platforms) $3,676 $3,408 -7%
Video Game Hardware $410 $490 19%
Video Game Accessories $174 $174 0%
*Mobile spending provided by Sensor Tower

“U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories reached $4.1 billion during the month of September 2022, a decline of 4% when compared to the same month a year ago,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella.

The rise in hardware sales is largely thanks to the increased supply of the PlayStation 5. It’s not quite so hard to find as before, and it ranked first in both unit and dollar sales. Hardware is one of the areas of consistent growth in the last few months.

Year-to-Date 2022 Dollar Sales, Millions YTD
2021
YTD
2022
Change
Total Video Game Sales $41,800 $38,398 -8%
Video Game Content (Physical & Digital Full Game, DLC/MTX and Subscription consumer spending across Console, Cloud, Mobile*, Portable, PC and VR) platforms) $36,611 $33,486 -9%
Video Game Hardware $3,408 $3,359 -1%
Video Game Accessories $1,781 $1,554 -13%
*Mobile spending provided by Sensor Tower

Piscatella added, “Year-to-date total video game spending across content, hardware and accessories is now 8% lower than 2021, at $38.4 billion.”

September 2022 NPD: Top 20 best-selling games of the month in the U.S.

NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers. Not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesn’t share its first-party sales, and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales.

These charts are sorted by dollar sales — not number of units sold. And this is for full-game sales and does not include in-game spending.

Rank Last
Month
Rank
All Platforms Publisher
1 NEW FIFA 23 Electronic Arts
2 1 Madden NFL 23 Electronic Arts
3 NEW NBA 2K23* Take-Two Interactive (Corp)
4 NEW Splatoon 3* Nintendo
5 NEW The Last of Us: Part 1 Sony (Corp)
6 NEW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection Konami Digital Ent.
7 2 Saints Row (2022) Plaion
8 NEW JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle Bandai Namco Entertainment
9 4 Elden Ring Bandai Namco Entertainment
10 6 Mario Kart 8* Nintendo
11 7 Minecraft Multiple Video Game Manufacturers
12 3 Marvel’s Spider-Man Sony (Corp)
13 8 LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Warner Bros. Interactive
14 16 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* Nintendo
15 24 Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War Activision Blizzard (Corp)
16 12 Horizon II: Forbidden West Sony (Corp)
17 13 Call of Duty: Vanguard Activision Blizzard (Corp)
18 36 Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla Ubisoft
19 9 MLB: The Show 22^ Multiple Video Game Manufacturers
20 39 Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Bandai Namco Entertainment
*Digital sales not included
^Xbox & Switch digital sales not included

The best-selling games list is all over the place this month — a mix of new releases and lower-ranked games making a jump in the rankings. It’s no longer just Elden Ring and LEGO Star Wars dominating the charts, as they’ve done for most of the year. Last month’s release Saints Row continues to rank well, and Marvel’s Spider-Man is still swinging high (sorry) on its PC release.

Some of the older games getting a rank boost include Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. The new interest in Valhalla likely comes from a recent update, as well as Ubisoft’s early September conference, which revealed the future of the AC franchise. Similarly, Bandai Namco delivered news about updates to Kakarot at the recent Tokyo Game Show, which is likely why it also jumped up a few ranks.

FIFA 23

You might notice a theme to the games at the top of the list. Madden, NBA and FIFA games are all up there, making it a pretty sports-heavy month. This isn’t a surprise, though. If you look at the charts from NPD for September 2021, the same three franchises are in the top three spots (not in the same order, though). It’s also the swan song of the FIFA games series, which will live under the new title EA Sports FC.

Splatoon 3

Several new games are ranking on the list this month, including Splatoon 3, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, The Last of Us Part 1 and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle. Given that these are all tied to popular franchises, it’s no surprise that they did well. Splatoon 3, in particular, sold several million copies in Japan within three days of launch. The above ranking is particularly impressive since Nintendo doesn’t include digital sales in its rankings.

September 2022 NPD: 20 best-selling games of 2022 so far

Rank Last
Month
Rank
All Platforms Publisher
1 1 Elden Ring Bandai Namco Entertainment
2 2 LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Warner Bros. Interactive
3 5 Madden NFL 23 Electronic Arts
4 3 Pokémon Legends: Arceus* Nintendo
5 4 Horizon II: Forbidden West Sony (Corp)
6 6 MLB: The Show 22^ Multiple Video Game Manufacturers
7 7 Call of Duty: Vanguard Activision Blizzard (Corp)
8 8 Gran Turismo 7 Sony (Corp)
9 9 Kirby and the Forgotten Land* Nintendo
10 10 Mario Kart 8* Nintendo
11 NEW FIFA 23 Electronic Arts
12 11 Minecraft Multiple Video Game Manufacturers
13 13 Nintendo Switch Sports* Nintendo
14 12 Madden NFL 22 Electronic Arts
15 21 Saints Row (2022) Plaion
16 14 FIFA 22 Electronic Arts
17 16 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* Nintendo
18 15 Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Sony (Corp)
19 18 Animal Crossing: New Horizons* Nintendo
20 17 Monster Hunter: Rise Capcom USA
*Digital sales not included
^Xbox & Switch digital sales not included

September 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling games of the last 12 months

Rank Last
Month
Rank
All Platforms Publisher
1 1 Elden Ring Bandai Namco Entertainment
2 2 Call of Duty: Vanguard Activision Blizzard (Corp)
3 4 LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Warner Bros. Interactive
4 5 Pokémon: Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl* Nintendo
5 6 Battlefield 2042 Electronic Arts
6 13 Madden NFL 23 Electronic Arts
7 7 Far Cry 6 Ubisoft
8 3 Madden NFL 22 Electronic Arts
9 9 Pokémon Legends: Arceus* Nintendo
10 10 Horizon II: Forbidden West Sony (Corp)
*Digital sales not included

September 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Nintendo-platform games in the U.S.

Rank Last
Month
Rank
Nintendo Platforms Publisher
1 NEW Splatoon 3* Nintendo
2 NEW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection Konami Digital Ent.
3 1 Mario Kart 8* Nintendo
4 3 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* Nintendo
5 4 Kirby and the Forgotten Land* Nintendo
6 6 Animal Crossing: New Horizons* Nintendo
7 7 Nintendo Switch Sports* Nintendo
8 5 Pokémon Legends: Arceus* Nintendo
9 9 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild* Nintendo
10 NEW JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle Bandai Namco Entertainment
*Digital sales not included

September 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling PlayStation-platform games in the U.S.

Rank Last
Month
Rank
PlayStation Platforms Publisher
1 NEW FIFA 23 Electronics Arts
2 1 Madden NFL 23 Electronics Arts
3 NEW NBA 2K23* Take-Two Interactive (Corp)
4 NEW The Last of Us: Part 1 Sony (Corp)
5 2 Saints Row (2022) Plaion
6 NEW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection Konami Digital Ent.
7 6 Elden Ring Bandai Namco Entertainment
8 3 Horizon II: Forbidden West Sony (Corp)
9 NEW JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle Bandai Namco Entertainment
10 5 Gran Turismo 7 Sony (Corp)
*Digital sales not included

September 2022 NPD: Top 10 best-selling Xbox-platform games in the U.S.

Rank Last
Month
Rank
Xbox Platforms Publisher
1 1 Madden NFL 23 Electronics Arts
2 NEW FIFA 23 Electronics Arts
3 NEW NBA 2K23* Take-Two Interactive (Corp)
4 2 Saints Row (2022) Plaion
5 4 Elden Ring Bandai Namco Entertainment
6 NEW JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle Bandai Namco Entertainment
7 NEW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection Konami Digital Ent.
8 7 Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War Activision Blizzard (Corp)
9 12 Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla Ubisoft
10 6 Call of Duty: Vanguard Activision Blizzard (Corp)
*Digital sales not included

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