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Madden NFL 21 extends franchise’s 21-year bestseller streak

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Another year, another chart-topping launch for the Madden NFL franchise.

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Buy Now was the top-selling game last month and is already the sixth bestselling game of the year, NPD reported on Monday. The game is the 21st consecutive Madden franchise launch to have topped the bestselling game chart during its respective launch month. NPD didn’t release sales figures for the game but said Madden NFL 21 secured “double-digit percentage dollar sales growth” compared to last year’s Madden NFL 20.

But Madden NFL 21 wasn’t the only EA Sports hit last month. The studio’s other August launch, Buy Now , landed behind Madden NFL 21 as the second best-selling game last month. According to NPD, the title also secured the franchise’s highest monthly sales number.

Activision’s Buy Now  and Sony’s Buy Now landed in the third and fourth spots, respectively. Buy Now  rounded out the top five.

All told, Americans bought $2.9 billion in video game software and associated content, like DLC, last month. That was up from the $2.1 billion spent last August.

NPD’s data looks at both physical and digital sales across the U.S. The company collects the information on video game consoles, games, and accessories and reports its findings each month.

Although the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 will launch in November, gamers didn’t show any signs of slowing their hardware spending last month, either. They spent $229 million on game hardware in August, up 37% compared to the $167 million they spent in August 2019. Nintendo’s Switch led the hardware charge last month and secured a record-breaking August. NPD didn’t say how many Switch units Nintendo sold last month but said sales more than doubled last August’s tally.

It was a similarly strong month for accessories, NPD reported on Monday. American consumers spent $166 million on accessories, including controllers, steering wheels, and headsets, last month, a 42% gain over the same period last year. Buy Now was the top-selling accessory last month, topping July’s best-seller, the Buy Now . Buy Now was the best-selling steering wheel last month and the Buy Now was the August leader in headsets.

Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Don Reisinger is a freelance technology, video game, and entertainment journalist. He has been writing about the world of…
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