Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had the highest selling launch of an exclusive console game ever in the US; sits 5th for 2018 behind Red Dead Redemption 2

Posted by Dakota 'DarkHorse' Hills • January 23, 2019 at 7:46 a.m. PST • Comments: 30

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was easily one of the most anticipated titles of 2018 especially to those of us in the fighting game community, and that enthusiasm appears to have carried over into record-breaking sales for the title in its first month on the market.

The NPD Group, which tracks the sales of video games and other industries in the United States, recently revealed the best-selling games of December and the entirety of 2018 where both Smash Ultimate and Red Dead Redemption 2 won big.

Sitting atop the December sales charts, not including digital sales, was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which saw the highest-grossing launch of a console exclusive title in the United States since the NPD began tracking sales data.

Smash Ultimate's sales beat out the previous record holder of Halo: Reach which released back in 2010, and its dollar sales were 70 percent higher in its first month than the previous best-selling game in the franchise, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

For the entire year of 2018, Red Dead Redemption 2 came out as the top dog in sales while Smash Ultimate landed in the number five spot ahead of even Sony's biggest exclusives of the year with God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man.

The fighting game community ended up with another representative on the end of the year sales chart with Dragon Ball FighterZ on the 15th spot having sold over 2 million copies in its first few weeks on store shelves. You can check out the top 20 best-selling games of December and all of 2018 according to the NPD after the jump.

Sources: NPD top selling games of 2018, NPD top selling games of December.
Sent in by BlitzN.