Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Tops Best Selling Video Game For January 2020

John F. Trent |

Feb 14, 2020

Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot skyrocketed to the best selling video game of January 2020 according to industry tracker NPD.

NPD reports Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot was the top selling game based on dollar sales. It bested Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Madden NFL 20.

Here’s the Top 19 Best Selling Games for January 2020 according to NPD:

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
Madden NFL 20
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Grand Theft Auto V
NBA 2K20
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Mario Kart 8
Ring Fit Adventure
Red Dead Redemption II
Minecraft II
Pokemon Sword
Luigi’s Mansion 3
Star Wars: Battlefront II
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Need for Speed: Heat
FIFA 20
Just Dance 2020
Mortal Kombat 11

Jan. 2020 top 20 video game titles in the U.S. across all platforms, according to The NPD Group#videogames pic.twitter.com/IuQF7zUpfM

— NPD Games (@npdgames) February 14, 2020

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot would be the top selling game on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in January 2020.

The Top 10 Games for the Xbox One were:

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
Madden NFL 20
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
NBA 2K20
Grand Theft Auto V
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Red Dead Redemption II
Need for Speed: Heat
FIFA 20

Jan. 2020’s top 10 best-selling video game titles in the U.S. for Xbox One, according to The NPD Group#videogames #XboxOne pic.twitter.com/HC037Cfm1C

— NPD Games (@npdgames) February 14, 2020

The top 10 for PlayStation were:

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
Madden NFL 20
Grand Theft Auto V
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
NBA 2K20
Need for Speed: Heat
Minecraft
FIFA 20
Red Dead Redemption II

Jan. 2020’s top 10 best-selling video game titles in the U.S. for PlayStation 4, according to The NPD Group#videogames #PlayStation4 #PS4 pic.twitter.com/5d8rGvViJA

— NPD Games (@npdgames) February 14, 2020

The top performing game on the Switch was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Here’s the top 10:

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Mario Kart 8
Ring Fit Adventure
Pokemon Sword
Luigi’s Mansion 3
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Pokemon Shield
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
Super Mario Party
Just Dance 2020

Jan. 2020’s top 10 best-selling video game titles in the U.S. for Nintendo Switch, according to The NPD Group#videogames #Switch #NintendoSwitch #Nintendo pic.twitter.com/Oj2HDCRcgC

— NPD Games (@npdgames) February 14, 2020

While Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot took the top spot for January 2020, the month performed poorly compared to 2019 sales which saw the release of Kingdom Hearts III and Resident Evil 2.

NPD reports that dollar sales tracked by them declined 31%. NPD analyst Mat Piscatella believes this decline is due to the “new release slate.”

According to @MatPiscatella, “Dollar sales of tracked video game software fell 31 percent in January compared to a year ago, to $311 million. Declines were driven by the new release slate, as the January 2019 comparable month featured both Kingdom Hearts III and Resident Evil 2”

— NPD Games (@npdgames) February 14, 2020

Not only were software sales down, but sales across the board declined from January last year. Piscatella reports, “Tracked spending across video game hardware, software, accessories, and game cards topped $678 million, falling 26% compared to January 2019.”

Piscatella believes the reason for this decline is “late cycle hardware dynamics for PS4 and Xbox One, as well as a lighter new release software slate.”

According to @MatPiscatella, “Jan’20 tracked spending across vg hardware, software, accessories & game cards topped $678M, falling 26 percent compared to Jan’19. Late cycle hardware dynamics for PS4 and Xbox One, as well as a lighter new release software slate drove the variance

— NPD Games (@npdgames) February 14, 2020

While Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot took the top spot for January 2020, it has not yet cracked the top 10 for the 12 months ending January 2020.

NPD reports Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 is the top selling game in the 12 months ending January 2020.

The top 10 includes:

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019
NBA2K20
Madden NFL 20
Borderlands 3
Mortal Kombat 11
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
Super Smash Bro. Ultimate
Grand Theft Auto V
Mario Kart 8

Top 10 best-selling video game titles for the 12 months ending Jan. 2020, according to The NPD Group#videogames pic.twitter.com/ddvdSQfYaS

— NPD Games (@npdgames) February 14, 2020

Are you surprised by any of these rankings? What do you make of this report?