May NPD 2018: State of Decay’s second act chews its way to the top

The game industry was up 13 percent year-over-year in May, generating $685 million from May 2017’s $607 million, according to the industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. The growth is thanks mostly to hardware and accessories, as software sales were down 4 percent.

[DeadSilence]

Console Gaming is on 🔥🔥🔥

[lxeasy]

SOD2 was there number 1 selling game this month. Congrats Undead labs!

[Aceman18]

Not surprised since it was their newest exclusive released this year, and it is cheap as hell price wise.

So ppl latching on to it was pretty much a giving.

[GottaBjimmyb]

@aceman man, some of you on this site just cannot accept positive news even remotely relating to MS

Isn't every new game released the newest game released this year? How does that make it less impressive that SOD2 made the top spot. You guys come up with an excuse for anything. Also being $30 is a disadvantage as far as I am aware as I believe NPD bases sales on revenue, not item quantity sold.

[fiveby9]

The game is like water in the desert. When you're dying of thirst you'll even drink dirty water.

[Sayai jin]

Spin and down play. Tsk, the ways for some on this site.

[Kavorklestein]

Congrats Undead Labs.

@fiveby9

I have 242 games on my 1TB internal and 4TB External... Not lacking things to play in ANY sense of the word. I'll bet I have more Current Gen games than you do, even.
I'll bet plenty of xbox gamers have more current Gen games than you do.

Lack of First Party only applies to one thing, 1st Party Titles, and potential sales of a Console for said exclusives.

You guys need to stop acting like 1st party games makes or breaks every part of a console's value or reasons to own one.

Having more AAA 1st Party Exclusives helps, Sure... it's a good foundation for value, sure... but not the only defining factor for people's decision making.

It is not like there is only ONE correct choice too, regardless of popular opinion(s)... gaming is why we're here... right? SO as long as people are staying engaged and excited as GAMERS, they're not doing anything wrong just because they use a different device or play different games right?

If you think that my viewpoint is not the truth ^^^ then you must just get off on raining on people's parades.
Whatever floats your _______, makes you feel better about ___________, or helps you_______________.

I drive a Honda Civic because it's a good value and had good performance for the price, and high resale value, good reliability, and I had tons of bonus incentives given to me for buying the car.

YOUR Toyota Avalon is the best for YOU, for YOUR reasons.

People have 4 decisions for traditional current gen Console/device gaming.
Playstation, Xbox, Switch, and PC.

There's only 4 choices people can make. People are bound to have many pros and cons the may align or misalign with YOUR reasons you made your choice

[TheCommentator]

@ aceman

I thought the reviews were mediocre for this game... that most people here were saying it would flop... that it wasn't AAA... that it was a rehash of SoD1... that sales would be hurt by Game Pass...

Yet here we are, with Game Pass, and sales are still high for this AND SoT!

[DarkVoyager]

Crazy.

“The fact that State of Decay 2 managed to surpass titles like God of War and Detroit: Become Human is a testament to the game's addictive nature and popularity of the franchise. State of Decay 2 didn't garner great reviews at launch due to its bugs, but that didn't stop it from topping the charts. Plus, it was also available for free through Xbox Game Pass which detracted from sales.”

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Fire for everyone

[zivtheawesome]

interesting thing to note. NPD charts based on revenue. because SoD2 cost 30$ and still charted at first place with GoW being second, it means SoD 2 has sold above twice the amount of sales GoW have done this month.

[Tobse]

Big numbers even with gamepass and they dont even count digital plus PC sales. No wonder ms bought the studio

[hit17388]

But the game is kinda ass.. I would understand if it was good but is not. All the site gave it mediocre score. Great job on all three tho on system sales.

[Saijahn]

hit17388

every site didn't trash it. its a decent game but they dropped the ball in a lot of ways. the patches are making it better.

[Krangs_Uncle]

Is this Xbox and PC sales combined?

[zivtheawesome]

it does include them both.

[Krangs_Uncle]

Ah ok. I would like to see the numbers for each platform.

[Razzer]

“isn't that the point of Windows 10 support?
To boost software sales?”

Obviously

[Krangs_Uncle]

What's wrong with wanting to know which hardware platform contributed to which numbers?

[DeeJayQc]

It's a Play anywhere game... Buy it on one platform, you get it for both platforms, so the short answer to your question is : Yes.

[timotim]

Actually no. PC nor any digital sales (Play Anywhere, Gamepass) were counted. This is all retail copies from Xbox One as their is no such thing as a boxed copy of this game for PC.

That means the digital version both being sold on console and PC, as well as all revenue from those getting GamePass just to play only add on top of this already impressive accomplishment.

And just FYI...their is no breakdown for digital PlayAnywhere titles. It's one digital version, that plays on both console and PC...the PC version is the console version...the console version is the PC version.

[KillBill]

@timotim - that is incorrect. NPD has been tracking digital sales for some time now. These numbers do in fact include digital sales.

[timotim]

@killbill

No Sir. Read the actual article next time.

"*No digital sales included
**No PC digital sales included"

[KillBill]

@timotim - maybe you should learn to comprehend what you yourself are reading. Note that the items you even quoted have asterisk beside them. A single asterisk for "*No digital sales included" and a double asterisk for "**No PC digital sales included". Now let me educate on what these are... they are specific notes that identify when a particular item falls under these criteria. Only 6 of the games on the top 20 have the identified asterisk beside them. None of the top 4 have said asterisk.

Go get learned.

[Godchild1020]

"It was May’s best-seller, and it sold almost twice as many copies as its prequel, State of Decay. A little less than a month after its launch."

I don't know I'd it sold twice as many copies compared to GOW (Retail Only). But it was stated that it sold twice as many copies as it prequel.

Nonetheless, congratulations overall.

[zivtheawesome]

just a small correction as the article is misleading about this. SoD 2 has almost twice the revenue of SoD 1, not units and SoD 1 cost 20$ on launch so basically about 30% more copies overall (this data is taken from a resetera insider). the SoD 2 selling twice the amount of copies compared to GoW in may (remember that GoW sold massively in april before that so GoW is still significantly above SoD 2 as seen in the best sellers of 2018 chart), is taken from the fact SoD 2 charted above GoW this month with SoD 2 being priced at half the price of GoW. because of the way that NPD charts based on revenue, in order to actaully chart above it SoD 2 needed to sell above twice the units (or at least close to that, because SoD 2 also had a 50$ special edition, but i don't think that these editions usually impact that much).

[KillBill]

@zivtheawesome - incorrect... NPD with games and consoles counts units sold, not revenue.

[KillBill]

From what I see with games and consoles NPD counts units sold. Not sure where you and others are getting the idea it is revenue. As it never shows a dollar amount from what I have seen.

[zivtheawesome]

Nah NPD counts by revenue. I am certain of that as I have someone I know who has access to that info and he explained that it is more important to a company how much revenue the games got instead of game sales, because that is what that will affect them more. A 1$ game selling 10M copies makes less revenue than a 60$ game selling 1M copies so higher priced game will be charted higher.

[Razzer]

Wow. State of Decay 2 at the top? Did not expect that.

[Kribwalker]

It crushed it. And with people like me on gamepass and not buying it it’s surprising that it sold as well as it did. Only played it a bit so far but it’s a lot of fun

[King_Lothric]

Does PC has game pass too? Both platform sales are included I guess.

[aconnellan]

@king

I don’t think PC sales are counted - I could be wrong, but I think it only counts physical retail copies, and to buy it on PC you’d have to buy digital

[Kribwalker]

Pc does have gamepass as well if they were counting digital sales

[Gh05t]

Me either, I would have thought Game Pass would have hindered sales more than it did.

I played both games through Game Pass since I am a game pass subscriber.

Happy for the team and still kind of shocked.

Bravo!

[RainbowBrite]

Look at SoD2 numbers: naaah people don't want exclusives.

[MIDNIITE_Z3RO]

If it were available on PS4, I'm sure PS4 owners would buy it. I got it on PC because I don't have an Xbox One. I personally hate exclusives because it forces me to buy a console that I'll only play three or four games on. My PS4 has been collecting dust, and will continue to do so until The Last of Us 2 comes out. The last game I played on it? Uncharted 4.

[doggo84]

"My PS4 has been collecting dust, and will continue to do so until The Last of Us 2 comes out. The last game I played on it? Uncharted 4."

What a main guy. Uncharted 4 wasnt the last good exclusive for the system though, so you can downplay all you want, but the ps4 has undoubtedly delivered great exclusives on a consistent basis, and every game may not be for everyone but at least there is enough variety there to mix things up for people with different tastes. You may have your Ps4 collecting dust but that's your loss, i still have persona 5, yakuza zero, gravity rush 2, etc. in my backlog and if anything my ps4 pro has been on overdrive ever since i bought it. WAY Too many good exclusives on the ps4 to pass up.

[Razzer]

So you complain about having to buy a console for exclusives.....and yet you barely touch the exclusives the console has? lol....ok

[Razzer]

@Reaprr

lol....he was “forced” to buy a PS4 for the exclusives!

[rivaldoo777]

Surprised you didn't try Persona 5 and GOW. Those game are as good as U4 some people argue it's better so give it a go man.

[RainbowBrite]

And I'm sure if The Last of Us were on Xbox, Xbox owners would buy it. But it isn't. The point is that SoD2 sold so good that it even surpassed the PS4 games of that month (which has at least the double amount of consoles). And why is that? Because it is an exclusive. Even though Call of Duty 15, is the best selling game of the year, I haven't seen an Xbox COD surpassing the PS4 games (because you can also find it on PC and PS4 and probably switch in the future).
Maybe you hate Exclusives, but they are good for the industry, it forces the other part to compete, to try to make a better product than the competition. And perhaps, without exclusives, awesome studios like Naughty Dog or Nintendo EAD wouldn't exist. Exclusives (and consoles) give flavor to gaming... Is not the same, to game on a Sony console than gaming on an Xbox console or a Nintendo console, it has a different feel. It's made for different sort gamers. And I think that's great, that's just great.

[conanlifts]

I am kind of surprised you never tried god of war or horizon zero dawn.especially horizon, which can be picked up for a great price in sales.

[itsmebryan]

Remember they say "Xbox one doesn't have any exclusives and the ones they have are flops" I guess they were wrong.

[King_Lothric]

This is not an Xbox exclusive. Is also available on PC.

[doggo84]

Kong_lorthic

I love how 9 people think SOD 2 ISNT on PC lmao

[Gh05t]

What? Gamers should just want good games.

[AmUnRa]

And SoD is not a,good game according to the reviews...But it is a excl. for xbox and Xbxogamers are just to get every excl game they get, even if it is mediocre just like SoT...

[King_Lothric]

Is that game exclusive? I thought it was on PC too.

[PCgamer98]

Goes to show people still can't get enough of zombie games.

[mark_parch]

to be fair even though it has zombies in it sod is still very unique with the way it approaches the genre. I love sod2 but I really hope now that they are 1st party that sod3 becomes a true AAA experience.

[OB1Biker]

Indeed. That doesnt prevent some weirdos from going 'eww Days Gone, another zombie game' whereas it doesnt even have zombies.
Btw Im glad SoD2 is doing well even if I only play on PS. It shows gamers arent influenced by reviews which need to evolve.

[Gh05t]

In general I am not a fan of anything "zombie" related, but I like the mechanics and systems and resource management of the game.

But yes Zombies are not going anywhere anytime soon.

[AK91]

:(

[timotim]

Crying tears of joy or....

[AK91]

The opposite not because SOD 2 is a bad game but because if you played an enjoyed the original the sequel is underwhelming.

Not to mention publishers and devs listen to money as opposed to words and this case it's telling them that gamers want the same rehashed stuff as opposed to brand new unique experiences

[timotim]

Except SoD2 features the number 1 requested feature that gamers wanted, which was online Co-op...talk about listening...

[Prince_TFK]

I thought, according to N4G, no one bought SoD2 and that everyone had played it on Gamepass only?

[Razzer]

There is member here named N4G?

[Team_Litt]

Pretty sure there is. Like, guaranteed.

[OB1Biker]

I'm Spartacus

[conanlifts]

No, i am Spartacus.

[Eldyraen]

I bought a copy after playing with Game Pass only because it’s $30. I’m sure some did the same to show it added support. Then of course the whole “physical vs digital” people that want a real copy since Game Pass is even less “yours” than a digital purchase.

Just glad it apparently sold well as it has its flaws but I liked it a lot more than the original for some reason.

[ludicrous]

It is a really fun game with an addicting gameplay loop (if micromanaging is your thing).