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Far Cry Primal tops the best selling games list for February 2016, beating Street Fighter 5 , but hardware sales suffer a huge decline in the NPD Group’s latest report.
Set in pre-historic times, Far Cry Primal ditches the series’ vehicles and modern weaponry for spears, clubs, bows, and animal companions. However, while the game’s pre-historic gameplay had many intrigued, there were concerns that Primal was just a re-skin of Far Cry 4 (the fact that the two games seem to share a mapalso raised eyebrows). Moreover, some players were frustrated that the game doesn’t include co-op.
This didn’t seem to matter too much, though, as Ubisoft’s open-world game topped the software sales list during February 2016, according to a newly released report from the NPD Group. Coming in second was 2015 release Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and in third place was Grand Theft Auto 5 , with the game continuing strong years after its release (the most recent tally put it at over 60 million sales).
At number four, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 was the next new release on the list, followed by basketball sim NBA 2K16 in fifth place, and LEGO Marvel’s Avengers , which was released in the last few days of January, in sixth.
Arguably the second biggest release of February, Street Fighter 5 , was way down at seventh place. While Street Fighter 5 ‘s incredibly short story campaignmay have put some players off, it’s important to note that the NPD Group doesn’t track digital sales (a majority of sales on PC are digital) or physical game sales outside the US.
The top ten finishes out with Minecraft in eighth place, Fire Emblems Fates: Birthright in ninth, and Fallout 4 at number 10. The NPD Group says that if all three versions of Fire Emblem Fates were combined, the game “would have ranked third for new physical software sales”.
As for hardware sales, the PlayStation 4 once again beat out its competitors to become the best-selling console for the month. However, the NPD Group says that total hardware sales dropped by 26% in comparison to February 2015, with figures heavily influenced by the decline of current-gen consoles, which dropped by 77%.
Sales of current-gen consoles, on the other hand, only declined by 6% in comparison to February 2015 and are likely to bounce back this month. Tom Clancy’s The Division has become Ubisoft’s fastest selling game everand likely helped move a few consoles in the process, while (console-only release) EA Sports UFC 2 will surely help shift some console units when the fighting sim releases next week.
Source: IGN