Despite its problems, Anthem was the best-selling game in the US last month

[midian182]

Why it matters: By BioWare’s own admission, Anthem had a far from smooth launch, but that didn’t stop it from becoming the best-selling game in the US during February. Additionally, it was the second top-selling game for the whole of 2019 so far and had the second highest launch-month sales in BioWare's history, beaten only by Mass Effect 3.

Industry-tracking firm The NPD Group's latest sales report reveals that only Kingdom Hearts III has sold more copies in 2019 than Anthem, and that’s not counting the shooter's PC digital sales. It’s likely that the amount of money EA threw behind its marketing campaign and the hype it generated resulted in plenty of preorders.

Anthem received mostly average to negative reviews from critics, and it’s suffered plenty of bugs, crashes and performance issues following its release, but BioWare says it has delivered over 200 improvements through patches and live updates, and it promises more to come.

Other top-selling games in February included Jump Force, whose launch sales are the third-highest ever for a Bandai Namco game. This was followed by Kingdom Hearts III and Far Cry New Dawn—another title that wasn’t loved by critics. The excellent Metro Exodus was eighth, even without PC sales being counted, setting a launch-month sales record for the franchise. It beat Metro: Last Light by nearly 50 percent.

In the hardware category, the Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console for both February and 2019 as a whole, giving Nintendo its best February in terms of money made from hardware since 2011.

Overall hardware spending, however, was down 12 percent YoY to $277 million, but spending on software across console, portable, and PC reached $457 million, up 15 percent. Year-to-date software spending, meanwhile, was up 10 percent to $896 million.

Full charts are as follows:

February 2019 US Sales

Top 20 Games All Platforms

1.Anthem^

2. Jump Force

3. Kingdom Hearts III

4. Far Cry New Dawn

5. Red Dead Redemption II

6. Resident Evil 2

7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*

8.Metro: Exodus^

9. NBA 2K19

10. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4^

11. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*

12. Mario Kart 8*

13. Grand Theft Auto V

14. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

15. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

16. Minecraft#

17. Super Mario Party*

18. Rainbow Six Siege

19. Madden NFL 19^

20. Spider-Man

2019 Year-To-Date Top 10 Games

1. Kingdom Hearts III

2. Anthem^

3. Resident Evil 2

4. Jump Force

5. Red Dead Redemption II

6. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*

7. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4^

8. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*

9. NBA 2K19

10. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

All Platforms 12 Months Ending February 2019

1. Red Dead Redemption II

2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4^

3. NBA 2K19

4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*

5. Madden NFL 19^

6. Spider-Man

7. Far Cry 5

8. God of War

9. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

10. Mario Kart 8*

* Digital sales not included

^ PC digital sales not included

# Minecraft digital sales on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One included

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/79279-despite-problems-anthem-best-selling-game-us-last.html

 

[theunknown]

Until you can include digital sales in your reporting, stop using incomplete data to publish a story. Given that you may never be able to include digital sales data, stop pushing stories that try to paint a picture of whether a game sold well or not with incomplete data. It's yellow journalism. Stop it.

 

[m4a4]

Until you can include digital sales in your reporting, stop using incomplete data to publish a story. Given that you may never be able to include digital sales data, stop pushing stories that try to paint a picture of whether a game sold well or not with incomplete data. It's yellow journalism. Stop it.

Really? Why are you complaining to TechSpot? They're using another report to give general tech and software stats. And it's not like they're hiding anything (it clearly states that certain sales aren't included). Unless you're just annoyed that a game you don't like appears to be selling well?

I'm fine with these getting posted from time to time, as long as they're clear (as they are here). Though the title is a bit click-baity.

 

[theunknown]

Until you can include digital sales in your reporting, stop using incomplete data to publish a story. Given that you may never be able to include digital sales data, stop pushing stories that try to paint a picture of whether a game sold well or not with incomplete data. It's yellow journalism. Stop it.

Really? Why are you complaining to TechSpot? They're using another report to give general tech and software stats. And it's not like they're hiding anything (it clearly states that certain sales aren't included). Unless you're just annoyed that a game you don't like appears to be selling well?

I'm fine with these getting posted from time to time, as long as they're clear (as they are here). Though the title is a bit click-baity.

It's the click-bait title that plagues the industry. From the title you'd think there was some kind of evidence that sales were great for this game only to find out they don't have most of the data needed to make that assertion. I am only replying here out of frustration of this shotty practice in this industry. They can do better than this and choose not to in order to drive viewers to their site. Yellow journalism. It's got to stop.

That being said, I own the game and think it's a diamond in the rough. It needed more time for necessary polish and refinement. If you got it with the Origin Premier subscription ($15 for a month) then it's a good deal but it's not worth buying outright for $60+ right now. It may take 6-12 months before that game is worth $60+.

 

[yRaz]

Anthem isnt even In the top 10 anymore, who cares about last month?

 

[m4a4]

It's the click-bait title that plagues the industry. From the title you'd think there was some kind of evidence that sales were great for this game only to find out they don't have most of the data needed to make that assertion. I am only replying here out of frustration of this shotty practice in this industry. They can do better than this and choose not to in order to drive viewers to their site. Yellow journalism. It's got to stop.

That being said, I own the game and think it's okay if you got if with the Origin Premier subscription but it's not worth buying outright for $60+ right now.

Ok, then focus on the click-bait. The report in and of itself is fine, as they have more than just Anthem stats, and the lists do reference that some data is missing. Some insight is better than none (and some things can be inferred).

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Not hard to be the biggest seller when ... what else was released last month???

 

[RedGuard]

Wow, GTA5 still selling like crazy. It's gonna be 2025 and it will still be on the charts, albeit at position 15.

 

[amghwk]

Best seller due to mindless people supporting the new trend called "pre-ordering".

Gaming spirit is dead with pre-orders.