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It's well established, courtesy of Nintendo shouting it from the rooftops, that the launch of Fire Emblem Fates in North America has been successful. Over 300,000 sales between Birthright, Conquest and Special Editions in the launch weekend alone made it the most successful ever US debut for the series, for example.

The February NPD results - which only cover physical retail sales of new game copies in the US - further reinforce this positive launch. As you can see in the top 10 below Birthright is one of only two single-format titles that made the list - the presence of Street Fighter V in this category is courtesy of the lack of physical copies sold for the PC version.

  1. Far Cry: Primal (PS4, Xbox One)
  2. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
  3. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
  4. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS4, Xbox One)
  5. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
  6. Lego Marvel Avengers (PS4, 360, Xbox One, Wii U, PS3, 3DS, Vita)
  7. Street Fighter V (PS4)
  8. Minecraft (360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
  9. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS)
  10. Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

It's also noted that combining the multiple editions of Fates would see it chart even higher, as highlighted by NPD analyst Liam Callahan.

If sales for Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, and the special edition for Fire Emblem Fates were combined, this title would have ranked third for new physical software sales. The combined first month sales of Fire Emblem Fates would more than triple the first month sales of the next-highest game within the franchise, Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Despite those positives, February was actually a poor month for new (physically packaged) game and hardware sales in the US, with declines in sales. The NPD results, of course, don't reflect on download sales, though it was confirmed that Wii U and 3DS hardware sales were down on February 2015's results; the latter is to be expected, as the New Nintendo 3DS XL launched in North America in that equivalent window last year.

Great news for Fire Emblem Fates, nevertheless - it seems that the dual release has paid off.

[source venturebeat.com]