Octopath Traveler, Nintendo Switch Show Dominance In July 2018 NPD Numbers

The July 2018 NPD numbers have been released for the month of July, and, surprise! There's a new game in town that managed to knock Grand Theft Auto V off the top of the best-sellers perch.

Based on the numbers provided in the report, Octopath Traveler has become the top-seller for the month, becoming a bona fide hit for the Nintendo Switch. But don't worry, GTA fans: your game is still sitting in a comfortable second place position.

Here are the top twenty best selling games for the month:

• Octopath Traveler
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Mario Kart 8
• Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Far Cry 5
• Super Mario Odyssey
• The Crew 2
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
• Mario Tennis Aces
• FIFA 18
• Lego The Incredibles
• God of War (2018)
• Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
• NBA 2K18
• Call of Duty: WWII
• Detroit: Become Human
• MLB 18: The Show
• Minecraft
• Destiny 2

(Keep in mind that the Nintendo games don't include any digital sales, they only count with physical releases.)

The Nintendo Switch ended up being the best selling hardware for the month, thanks to a number of its games being in the top ten, including long-standing favorites like Mario Kart 8 and Breath of the Wild, as well as Octopath in a first place spot.

NPD analyst Mat Piscatella explained, "Octopath Traveler was the best-selling game of July 2018. Half of July's top 10 best-sellers are Nintendo platform exclusives."

He continued, "Nintendo is the top-selling full game software publisher for both July and year to date. Nintendo Switch is the only platform showing year-on-year growth in full-game dollar sales with gains of nearly 70 percent when compared to a year ago, despite digital sales on Nintendo platforms not currently being tracked by The NPD Group. Year-to-date sales of full-game software on Nintendo Switch have more than doubled when compared to a year ago."

This bodes very well for the company's forthcoming holiday season, which should see great games like Super Mario Party, Diablo III: Eternal Collection and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate do very well for it.

Spending as a whole was up from the previous year, with $749 million total (compared to $655 million from July 2017. Accessories saw the biggest jump (49 percent with $286 million), though gaming hardware did just fine with $217 million.

For the year, the gaming industry has made $6.769 billion for the year, compared to $5.807 million from last year. And with so many hot titles on the way, including Spider-Man and Red Dead Redemption 2, those numbers should continue to grow.

We'll see how August shapes up in just a few weeks!

(Hat tip to VentureBeat for the details!)