March 2020 Was a Record-Breaking Month for Switch and Animal Crossing

March 2020 was a record-breaking month for both Nintendo Switch and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with Animal Crossing achieving the third highest launch month physical dollar and unit sales of any Nintendo published game and passing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as the best-selling game of the month. As revealed by NPD's video game analyst Mat Piscatella, Animal Crossing: New Horizons sits only behind Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the highest launch month physical software sales. Launch month sales of New Horizons have exceeded the lifetime sales of all other Animal Crossing titles, which makes this newest entry the best-selling game in franchise history. The Nintendo Switch set a new all-time record for hardware unit sales in a March month, besting the previous high that Nintendo has held since the launch of the Switch in March 2017. Switch has also generated the highest Q1 unit sales for any hardware platform since the Nintendo DS in Q1 2010, a number that also had to deal with Switch shortages around the world. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/20/the-biggest-games-coming-in-2020"] Hardware sales are up 63% from March 2019 and have reached $461 million. Nintendo Switch sales have more than doubled and PlayStation 4 and Xbox One both saw more than a 25% rise. Q1 2020 hardware spending is up 2% from Q1 2019 and is at $773 million. As for March as a whole, spending across video game hardware, software, accessories, and game cards totaled $1.6 billion, which is a 35% increase over March 2019. The $1.6 billion milestone is the highest earned in a March month since March 2008's $1.8 billion. However, year-to-date sales total $3.0 billion, which is a 4% decline compared to last year. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-2020-video-game-release&captions=true"] After Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, MLB: The Show 20, Resident Evil 3, and NBA 2K20 round out the top 5 best-selling games of March 2020. The full list is as follows:

March 2020's Best-Selling Games

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
3. MLB: The Show 20
4. Resident Evil 3
5. NBA 2K20
6. Doom Eternal
7. Persona 5: Royal
8. Grand Theft Auto V
9. Borderlands 3
10. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
11. Nioh 2
12. Red Dead Redemption II
13. FIFA 20
14. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
15. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX
16. Madden NFL 20
17. Just Dance 2020
18. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
19. Mortal Kombat 11
20. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Remastered

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/21/animal-crossing-new-horizons-april-free-update-trailer"] Some important notes on the above games include MLB The Show instantly becoming the 5th best-selling game of 2020 and fastest-selling game in MLB The Show franchise history, a number that may have been bolstered by the delay of the MLB season to to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is now the best-selling game of 2020 and March sales of Call of Duty franchise titles are the highest they have been since March 2010. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

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