Technology

June is one of the stranger months for game releases. It is the end of a quarter, but typically does not feature a ton of huge releases, partly due to E3, but also due to its awkward placement as the first quarter of the financial year for some companies and the second for others. But sometimes it does get some big titles the few that do release tend to compete pretty fiercely for those consumer Summer dollars.

Super Mario Maker 2, the sequel to one of the Wii U’s more successful games, was the best-selling title for the month. As should come as a shock to absolutely no one, the Switch game is also the best selling Mario Maker title, debuting higher than the Wii U game did. Like all software on Switch, digital purchases are not counted for this release, so the game outperformed everything else in June on retail sales alone. 

Not far behind Mario Maker, however, is Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled. The remake of the 1999 PlayStation game comes a few years after Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which did sold remarkably well for Activision. It seems like there’s also a lot of pent up demand for the racing game as well, as the kart racer hit the number 2 spot this month.

Mortal Kombat 11 pops in at number 3 and secures its spot as the best-selling game so far of 2011.

Here’s the full list of the top 20 best-selling games for the month of June.

It’s hard to say why some games from the past reappeared or gained momentum on the list. Of course Grand Theft Auto V will never disappear, but games like Smash Bros. Ultimate possibly got booster shots from their E3 DLC showings. Rainbow Six Siege has also topped The Division 2, despite the latter game releasing far more recently.

Marvel’s Spider-Man also saw a resurgence this month, likely thanks to sale prices and June being sandwiched between two major Marvel Cinematic Universe movies heavily featuring Spider-Man.

In terms of hardware, the Switch was the best selling console of the month, and of the year so far. While console sales are overall down, especially as this generation winds down, the Switch is the only console to see growth over last year. By this time next year it is unlikely we will have new consoles, but we will probably know about them, so presumably the downward trend is likely to continue.

Next month in July, we’re looking for sales for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and more.

In my youth, I remember superhero games being a bit of a gamble. You could end up with a Superman game where he dies to gunshots, or a terrible sidescrolling brawler based on Batman Forever, or maybe a surprisingly decent Capcom-developed X-Men game. Nowadays, the bar has raised a bit, thanks to games like Rocksteady’s Arkham series, which were by far the most successful superhero games in terms of sales. At least, until now.

Just ahead of San Diego Comic-Con’s superhero panels today, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella shared data of the best-selling superhero games in the United States. While we have long-known that Marvel’s Spider-Man, the PS4-exclusive collaboration between Marvel Games and Sony and developed by Insomniac, is one of the fastest-selling superhero titles ever, it is also now the best-selling one. Peter Parker has officially leapfrogged over his nearest competitor, Batman’s Arkham City.

Arkham City, the follow-up to the critically successful Arkham Asylum, was released in 2011 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. The sequel took Batman into an open world and let Batman fly around a condemned prisoner island beating up thugs and solving mysteries.

Sony has been particularly proud of Spider-Man’s critical and sales performance in the year since its release on PlayStation 4. Sony has even used Spider-Man as their specific example of how game performance will improve on the next PlayStation console.