August was a semi-busy month for gamers. We got two games in the first half of the month in the form of LawBreakers and Agents of Mayhem and we got a few more in the last half of the month with Madden NFL 18, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Surprisingly though, some of these games didn't make as big of a splash as you may have expected.
Thanks to the August NPD report, we can see that Grand Theft Auto V slaughtered almost all of the competition despite being a four year old game. Rockstar Games' massively popular crime game topped new releases like Sony's Uncharted: The Lost Legacy which is their biggest release since Horizon: Zero Dawn but was unable to surpass Madden NFL 18 due to its massive fanbase. You can check out the top 20 best selling games below and continue reading on for more insight.
- Madden NFL 18
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
- Splatoon 2*
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
- Mario Kart 8*
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
- Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
- Overwatch**
- Injustice 2
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
- Minecraft
- For Honor
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III
- Agents Of Mayhem
- Forza Horizon 3
- Battlefield 1
- NBA 2K17
- UFC 2
* No digital sales
** No Battle.net sales
"Grand Theft Auto V has now been on the market 49 months and has achieved 41 Top 10 chart appearances, 16 more times than any other single title in reported history,” said industry analyst Mat Piscatella. “In addition, Grand Theft Auto V is the all-time best-selling game by both revenue and units in tracked sales across PC, console and portable with digital and packaged combined.”
Interestingly, former Gears of War developer Cliff Blezinski's new FPS, LawBreakers, failed to chart within the top 20 despite pretty glowing reviews. The game has seen a very weak player count on Steam, sometimes dipping below 100. We have no idea where it stands on PS4 as there's no way to really track that but one can imagine it might be in a similar spot.
Voltion's Saints Row spin-off, Agents of Mayhem, also failed to pull in big numbers. It came in at #16, falling behind games that have been out for several years now. The lack of major marketing and lukewarm reviews most likely contributed to the game's lackluster sales.
Finally, for software, you'll notice that 2016's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is no where to be found on this list but 2015's Call of Duty: Black Ops III is along with Modern Warfare Remastered. MWR was originally packaged exclusively with copies of Infinite Warfare's collector's edition and was not sold seperately. This changed over the summer and it seems that many were willing to completely ditch Infinite Warfare in favor of a more grounded and critically acclaimed Call of Duty game. Infinite Warfare does still hold the number one spot for having sold the most copies in the last 12 months, though.
The Nintendo Switch managed to take the number one spot for best selling console in August, making it the fourth month in 2017 where it has dominated the charts. As seen in the charts, Nintendo is killing it with first party. Three of their Nintendo Switch games held a spot in the top 10 even without including digital sales. One game that didn't manage to chart in the top 20 was Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle but that may have been due to the fact that it released at the very end of August.
You can view the sales for games per console below as well as various other charts.
Xbox One
- Madden NFL 18
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
- Forza Horizon 3
- Overwatch**
- Injustice 2
- Minecraft
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
- For Honor
PlayStation 4
- Madden NFL 18
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
- MLB 17: The Show
- Overwatch**
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
- Injustice 2
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Nintendo Switch
- Splatoon 2*
- Mario Kart 8*
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
- ARMS*
- 1-2 Switch*
- Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers*
- Just Dance 2017*
- Lego City Undercover*
- Cars 3: Driven to Win*
- Minecraft: Story Mode The Complete Adventure*
Nintendo 3DS
- Miitopia*
- Hey! Pikmin*
- Pokemon: Sun*
- Super Smash Bros.*
- Super Mario Maker*
- Pokemon: Moon*
- Mario Kart 7*
- Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadow of Valentia*
- Mario Sports Superstars*
- New Super Mario Bros. 2*
The best-selling games of 2017 so far
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
- Grand Theft Auto V
- For Honor
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Injustice 2
- Mass Effect: Andromeda
- Madden NFL 18
- NBA 2K17
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
The best-selling games over the last 12 months
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Battlefield 1
- NBA 2K17
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Madden NFL 17
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
- FIFA 17
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
- Final Fantasy XV
- For Honor