Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the Switch (and the Covid-19) carry an historic month of April

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The NPD group has published the results of the video game market in the United States for the period from April 5 to May 2, 2020. A month with historical figures for more than one reason. Never in the history of the NPD group, which tracks spending on the video game market since 1995, have we seen a month of April as powerful as this one. With sales of $ 1.46 billion through sales of consoles, games and accessories, the video game market is up 73% compared to the previous month of April and surpasses all that we could see on this generation or even before. So far, the spending record was held by the month of April 2008 ($ 1.2 billion), when the overseas market was carried by the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and portable consoles. Obviously, we must not hide it, this new record established in 2020 would never have happened without the exceptional circumstances linked to the health crisis of Covid-19.

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And the big winner of this historic month is called Final Fantasy VII Remake . Biggest sale of the month and already the biggest sale of the year on PS4, the game has especially achieved the best launch in the history of the franchise in volume and value, surpassing the record held so far by Final Fantasy XV which was released in November 2016 on two platforms. We now know that the remake did indeed launch better than the adventures of Noctis in the two major markets of Japan and the United States, which is to say that the distribution volumes were misleading since they (5 million for FF15 against 3.5 million for FF7R) suggested that Final Fantasy XV had sold better. In reality,Final Fantasy XV had undoubtedly been the subject of an excessive distribution while Final Fantasy VII Remake found itself out of stock because of the complications linked to the Covid-19, which moreover was worth to him to carry out " exceptional " sales for download, according to Square Enix.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the Switch (and the Covid-19) carry an historic month of April

Indisputable Call of Duty

If it has to settle for second place, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare remains the best-selling game of the year across all platforms. Activision Blizzard was not joking when it said that this episode surpassed its predecessors: after 7 months on the market, this episode is currently the fourth fastest-selling game in the history of the American market, according to the NPD. Driven by the success of Call of Duty: Mobile and Call of Duty: Warzone , the success of Modern Warfare reflects the new momentum of a complete ecosystem. To not spoil anything at the kalof festival, the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered on Xbox One and PC allows the game to invite itself into the top 10. We recall that this title is sold for 25 euros, which makes its presence all the more impressive in a ranking by value.

To complete the podium, who other than the Animal Crossing: New Horizons phenomenon ? Sold to 13.4 million copies worldwide in just 6 weeks, the game owes its presence here only to boxed sales since Nintendo does not share its digital statistics with the NPD group. However, according to Nintendo, half of the world sales of life simulation went through the eShop, although it cannot be said that this proportion is valid for the United States.

Among the lessons of the top 20, we can note the good performance of Resident Evil 3 which occupies sixth place after having already won fourth place the previous month (the NPD had completed its balance sheet for March on April 4, therefore taking into account the first two days of the Capcom game launch). Two other games also made a very good second month: MLB The Show 20 and Persona 5 Royal , whose performance Sega recently praised on the Western market. We are a little more surprised to see the dispensable and poorly rated Predator: Hunting Grounds make a place in such a busy month, which at least has the merit of showing that the license has a certain commercial potential .

Finally, if Ubisoft is coming out of a dark year, it would be a shame not to highlight what is happening with Just Dance 2020 . Still improving compared to March, this episode achieves the best performance of the franchise since Just Dance 2014 . The game is mainly sold on Switch, the most common theory is that many confined people who could not get Ring Fit Adventure have turned to the title of Ubisoft.
 
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