The NPD Group has released their full North American sales data for March 2020, and while the month wasn’t great for a lot of people, it sure was good for Nintendo. Animal Crossing: New Horizons topped the charts, delivering the third-best opening month of any game in Nintendo history (behind only Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Ultimate). For the first time in quite a while, the industry was up year-on-year, with consumers spending $1.6 billion on games and hardware, an increase of 35 percent compared to March 2019. The Switch was the top console as usual, doubling sales year-on-year, but sales of Xbox One and PS4 were also up 25 percent. A lot of people stocking up for self-isolation!

　　A number of new games made the charts in March – as mentioned, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was #1 with a bullet, followed by MLB The Show 20 at #3, Resident Evil 3 at #4 (the cut-off date for the March charts was actually April 4, so RE3 squeaked in), Doom Eternal at #6, Persona 5 Royal at #7, Nioh 2 at #11, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX at #15 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered at #20. Of course, the unstoppable Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and NBA 2K20 also hung around the top 5, and Borderlands 3 snuck back into the top 10 due to sales and release of new DLC.

　　Here are March’s top 20 games according to NPD:

　　Animal Crossing: New HorizonsCall of Duty: Modern WarfareMLB The Show 20Resident Evil 3NBA 2K20Doom EternalPersona 5 RoyalGrand Theft Auto VBorderlands 3Mario Kart 8 DeluxeNioh 2Red Dead Redemption IIFIFA 20Super Smash Bros. UltimatePokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DXMadden NFL 20Just Dance 2020Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen OrderMortal Kombat 11Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 RemasteredAnd here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2020 so far:

　　Call of Duty: Modern WarfareAnimal Crossing: New HorizonsDragon Ball Z: KakarotNBA 2K20MLB The Show 20Grand Theft Auto VResident Evil 3Madden NFL 20Mario Kart 8 DeluxeStar Wars: Jedi: Fallen OrderDefinitely a unique month for the industry -- it will be interesting to see how COVID-19 continues to affect sales going forward. What do you think? Any surprises on this month’s charts?