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

The best-selling games of August 2016 have been revealed, as the NPD Group's monthly sales report of both physical and digital sales has been released. The top three for last month are Madden NFL 17, No Man's Sky, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The top ten is ranked in terms of dollar sales, as opposed to units sold as it was in the past.

No Man's Sky is the No. 2 game for August 2016, despite the NPD report not including its digital sales. Last month's top games, Grand Theft Auto V and Overwatch, both moved down three spots to the fourth and fifth places. It's important to note that Overwatch's digital PC sales are not included in the report.

July's third place game, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, moved down to number eight behind Rainbow Six Siege at six and Call of Duty: Black Ops III at seven. NPD top ten stalwarts Minecraft and Destiny: The Taken King took the ninth and tenth spots for August.

Last month, spending rose by nine percent year-over-year. NPD analyst Sam Naji credited the release of new games like No Man's Sky and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided with the increase. New games in August 2016 sold three times the amount of titles released in August 2015. Despite the overall increase, Naji said the spending on this year's Madden game dropped.

"Madden NFL 17 was the top-selling game for the month," Naji said. "However, there was a three percent decline in spending compared to last August release of Madden NFL 16."

On the hardware side, Xbox One beat the PS4 for the second month in a row. This happened the same month the Xbox One S released, which made up nearly a third of all console units sold.

"Thanks to our fans and their excitement for new Xbox One games and the recently launched Xbox One S, which is the only console available this holiday with built-in UHD 4K Blu-ray, 4K video streaming, and HDR for video and gaming, Xbox One was the best-selling console in the U.S. in August," Xbox marketing boss Mike Nichols said in Microsoft's statement last week. The PS4 Pro, which launches in November, does not include UHD 4K Blu-ray support.