Helldivers 2 Beat Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in February, is Sony’s 7th Highest Launch Ever

The former NPD Group (now named “Circana”) has released its full North American sales data for February, and it seems like it was a pretty solid month for the industry. Players spent $4.7 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in February, up 2 percent year-on-year. Hardware was a weak spot, down 30 percent year-on-year, with PS5 #1 in terms of unit and dollar sales, Switch #2 in terms of unit sales, and Xbox Series X/S #2 in terms of dollar sales.

On the software front, the big story was the surprise success of Helldivers 2, which was the #1 game of the month, delivering the 7th-best launch month sales of any game Sony has ever published. Interestingly, 60 percent of those sales came from PC rather than PS5. Somewhat unexpectedly, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was bumped to #2 – granted, it came out on February 29, but Circana’s data actually includes the couple days of March as well. Other new additions include Skull and Bones at #4 and Mario vs. Donkey Kong at #11.

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Here are February’s top 20 premium games according to Circana:

1 - Helldivers 2

2 - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

3 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

4 - Skull and Bones

5 - Tekken 8

6 - Madden NFL 24

7 - Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

8 - Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack

9 - Persona 3 Reload

10 - Hogwarts Legacy

11 - Mario vs. Donkey Kong

12 - EA Sports FC 24

13 - Spider-Man 2

14 - Elden Ring

15 - Super Mario Bros. Wonder

16 - Minecraft

17 - Mario Kart 8

18 - Mortal Kombat 1

19 - Rainbow Six Siege

20 - Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

And here are the top games of 2024 to date:

1 - Helldivers 2

2 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

3 - Tekken 8

4 - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

5 - Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

6 - Madden NFL 24

7 - Persona 3 Reload

8 - Hogwarts Legacy

9 - Skull and Bones

10 - EA Sports FC 24

What are your thoughts on the February