Xbox Series X|S Tops Hardware Charts, Elden Ring Repeats As No. 1 Best-Selling Game For March (US)

The NPD Group has released its latest monthly sales report, revealing the best-selling consoles and games for March 2022, and also providing an overview of the health of the industry in general for the month.

The Xbox Series family of consoles sold the best during March 2022 based on dollar sales, while the Switch was the top-seller in terms of total units. For Xbox specifically, March 2022 represented a new all-time record for any March month on record--the previous highs were March 2011 (units) and March 2014 (dollars). Total spending on video game hardware in March 2022, however, fell dramatically--diving by 24% down to $515 million. Looking at the first quarter, total spending on hardware dropped 15% to $1.2 billion.

Moving to games, Elden Ring was once again the top-seller during March, with dollar sales seeing double-digit growth compared to its launch month in February (where it was only on the market for 2 days following its February 25 debut and NPD's February cut-off on February 27). Elden Ring remains the best-selling game of 2022 so far, and it's No. 1 over the trailing 12-month period ending March 2022, only behind Call of Duty: Vanguard for dollar sales.

Sony's Gran Turismo 7 was the No. 2 best-seller for March 2022. It set a new all-time record for best launch-month sales in the Gran Turismo series. Mobile game spending fell 12% year-over-year, with Candy Crush Saga, Roblox, Coin Master, Garena Free Fire, and Genshin Impact leading the way for revenue.

Across the entire US video game market--hardware, software, mobile, and accessories--total spending fell by 15% to $4.9 billion.