Jurassic World and Batman Rule NPD Sales Charts for July

The PlayStation 4 leads another month of hardware sales as Batman: Arkham Knight and Lego Jurassic World fight for video game sales chart supremacy.

The video game industry-tracking firm, the NPD Group, revealed its monthly sales report for July 2015 (via Venture Beat). As usual, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V were high on the top 10 software sellers list, whereas Destiny, Mortal Kombat X, FIFA 15 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare all remain strong, despite having been out for quite some time. Unfortunately, it looks like my personal vote for game of the year, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, has dropped off of the best sellers list. Meanwhile, the biggest surprise on the top 10 best sellers list would have to be Rory Mcllroy PGA Tour.

“The top new game for July 2015 was Rory McIlroy PGA Tour,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan. “Sales within the first data month for this new title exceeded the prior iteration, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14, by close to 70 percent.”

Self disclosure: I don't know who Rory Mcllroy is, but I picture a younger version of Shooter McGavin. 

“Sales of new launches were down 3 percent in July 2015, but May and June launches are comparing favorably to the performance of launches of last year, up a combined 20 percent,” Callahan added. “Though May/June launches are performing well this month, this was not enough to offset decreased sales from July releases and older games released outside of the May through July timeframe, which were down 6 percent.”

Here's what the sales rankings were for July 2015 (with their highest selling platform formats in descending order):

1. Lego: Jurassic World (360, 3DS, PS3, Xbox One, Wii U, PS4, Vita)
2. Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
3. Minecraft (360, PS3 ,Xbox One, PS4)
4. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
5. Rory Mcilroy PGA Tour (PS4, Xbox One)
6. The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
7. Destiny (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3)
8. Mortal Kombat X (PS4, Xbox One)
9. FIFA 15 (PS4, 360, Xbox One, PS3, Wii, Vita, 3DS)
10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)

Surprise, surprise — Lego Jurassic World actually toppled the Caped Crusader on the sales charts for July (despite Arkham Knight launching in late June). Perhaps this is due to Batman: Arkham Knight being a current-gen exclusive combined with the negative backlash that the PC version of the game has gotten? I know plenty of people are simply waiting for a "Game of the Year" edition to feature Arkham Knight and the contents of its $40 Season Pass (ugh). Furthermore, the cinematic success of Jurassic World in theaters likely had plenty of kids wanting a dinosaur theme park-oriented game to play at home. This makes me wonder if Batman: Arkham Knight would have done significantly better if Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came out this year.

In terms of hardware, the PS4 once again outsold the Xbox One and Wii U, but Sony and Microsoft's consoles are picking up speed.

“After 21 months, combined Xbox One and PS4 hardware unit sales are close to 50 percent higher than the combined sales of Xbox 360 and PS3 after 21 months on the market,” Callahan added.

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