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Although there were informal mutterings around results last week, the NPD US sales details for July are starting to go public; Nintendo, in a break from recent convention, has news so good that it's leapt out with a press release to sum up its successes. Bear in mind the NPD results only account for physical retail sales in the US.

Nintendo is able to claim the best-selling games system in the US for July; for the first time in quite a while the 3DS was the top selling hardware, boosted by Capcom's Monster Hunter Generations and Pokémon titles benefitting from GO mania. In fact, Generations was the best-selling game overall, though Nintendo doesn't clarify whether that's in the overall chart or the single SKU chart. Either way it's an impressive result for the rather fantastic entry in the series, and a boost for all that hope for strong sales to encourage further MH localisations from Capcom.

The following bullet points from Nintendo's press release outline how good July was for the 3DS and a few key releases, including one on Wii U.


  • The Nintendo 3DS family of systems sold nearly 80 percent more units this July compared to the same time period a year ago, and finished as the overall best-selling video game system in July. On the software side, Capcom's Monster Hunter Generations emerged as the best-selling game for any system.
  • July sales of the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire games for Nintendo 3DS were over 80 percent higher than July 2015. The games launched in November 2014.
  • July sales of the Pokémon X and Pokémon Y games for Nintendo 3DS were almost 200 percent higher than a year ago. The games launched in October 2013 and finished No. 16 and No. 22 on July's best-sellers list, respectively.
  • Games playable on Nintendo systems claimed five of the top 11 spots on the July best-sellers list. These include Monster Hunter Generations from Capcom at No. 1, Minecraft: Wii U Edition from Microsoft at No. 6, Pokémon Omega Ruby at No. 8, Pokémon Alpha Sapphire at No. 10 and Kirby: Planet Robobot at No. 11.
  • The Nintendo 2DS system has crossed the 2 million lifetime sales mark in the U.S.

The 2DS dropped price to $79.99 earlier in the Summer, too, which is also being highlighted as a key to improved sales.

It's always pleasing to see Nintendo notch up some sales wins, and it's especially pleasing to see Generations continue the strong momentum that we saw with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Let us know what you think of these results in the comments.