Top 10 Best-Selling Games in the US for July 2016

The best-selling games of July 2016 have been revealed, thanks to the NPD Group's monthly sales report. Last month's top three are Grand Theft Auto V, Overwatch, and Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Grand Theft Auto V and Overwatch switched places from last month, but it's important to note that digital PC sales for Overwatch are not included. Grand Theft Auto V was also discounted heavily in multiple sales. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens kept its third-place spot from June.

The NPD's top ten is ranked in terms of dollar sales, as opposed to units sold as is in the past. It also covers both physical and digital copies across all platforms with some exceptions.

When compared to July 2015, last month saw a 14 percent decrease in revenue on hardware, software, and accessories. This is in part due to a lack of new games in July 2016. Monster Hunter Generations served as the month's biggest new release, though that sold 52 percent fewer dollars than July 2015's Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, which released on both PS4 and Xbox One. Last month's top ten games brought in 21 percent fewer dollar sales when compared year-over-year.

"Spending declined by 30 percent versus last July due to a 10 percent decline in unit sales and a 22 percent decline in the average price," said NPD analyst Sam Naji. "Spending on portables increased by 23 percent, but this was offset by a 37 percent decline in spending for consoles. Total spending came to $141 million, a decline of $61 million compared to July 2015."

When it comes to accessories, July 2016 saw a 34 percentage point shift in dollar share away from Skylanders and Amiibo accessories to Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions accessories. This is surprising, considering it was announced back in May that Disney Infinity development was discontinued and the online services were going to be shut down.

On the hardware side of things, the Xbox One outsold the PS4 last month. This was the first time Xbox One beat PS4 since last October. Naji noted that both consoles' cumulative hardware sales have passed the Xbox 360 and PS3 within the same time frame.

"After 33 months since the launches of the PS4 and the Xbox One, the combined cumulative hardware sales for these two consoles exceed the sales of their predecessors by 41 percent at the same point of their lifecycles," Naji said.

Despite the two consoles' performance, July's best-selling game system was actually the 3DS. Nintendo partly credits the "widespread positive public reception" for Pokemon Go for the handheld's success. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby combined to sell over 80 percent more copies year-over-year, and Pokemon X and Y saw a jump in sales of almost 200 percent more than July 2015. Additionally, the 3DS' Monster Hunter Generations was the top seller last month on a per-platform basis.