Wait, so PS4 outsold 3DS even with the launch of N3DS, huh....impressive

We're Like mushrooms.  Feed them nothing and keep 'em in the dark. 

Is there any weight in that? 

So The Order is probably overtracked then.

For you guys.

It was another strong month for Sony, as its console continues to to dominate.

Consumers spent $955.6 million on new retail games and hardware at U.S. retailers in February, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. That’s up 8 percent year-over-year. The PlayStation 4 was a major contributor to that increase, but the month also got big contributions from Nintendo and Microsoft as well in terms of both hardware and software. Hardware sales were $378.2 million. That’s up 10 percent compared to last year. The debut of the New 3DS XL helped give that figure a boost. Software was also up. It did 7 percent better than last year at $338.9 million.

We’ll get to the top-selling games next, but first it’s important to remember that the NPD only tracks new games sold at brick-and-mortar stores in the United States. No digital or worldwide sales figure into this report. So it’s best to view these results as a snapshot of a wider and more dynamic market.

With that said, let’s get to the game chart.

Software

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (3DS) (515,000 copies sold digitally and physically)
2. Evolve (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
3. Dying Light (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
4. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
5. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
6. NBA 2K15 (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360)
7. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360)
8. Minecraft (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4)
9. The Order: 1886 (PS4)
10. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS) (290,000 copies sold digitally and physically)

Nintendo is probably feeling pretty great right now. Zelda, one if its top franchises, outsold everything else in February. That includes two major new releases. This is good news for the company, which is going to release a brand new Zelda for the Wii U later this year that it is positioning as a system-selling game.

The two big new games that Zelda beat are Evolve and The Order: 1886. Evolve came out on Feb. 10, while The Order only had a week of sales after debuting Feb. 20. While both made the top 10, it feels like both didn’t perform as well as they should have. The Order was hammered with critical reviews, which likely hurt its sales.

In terms of surprises, Dying Light, which debuted in January, continues to sell well. The zombie-survival game is performing a lot like developer Techland’s previous game in this genre, Dead Island.

Hardware

Platform holders typically keep their hardware sales numbers quiet, but Sony once again revealed that PS4 was the top selling system for the month.

“Demand for PlayStation 4 remains incredibly strong in the U.S. as it was No. 1 in hardware and software sales in February, according to the latest NPD report,” a Sony spokesperson said in a statement. “PS4 remains the cumulative leader in hardware sales with more than 20.2 million units sold to consumers worldwide demonstrating the fastest growth in PlayStation hardware history.”

Nintendo shared some its figures as well. In a statement, the company confirmed that all versions of the handheld combined to sell 395,000 units in February.

“The great majority of these sales were New Nintendo 3DS XL systems, which sold 130 percent more units in its initial frame than Nintendo 3DS XL did when it launched on Aug. 19, 2012,” a spokesperson said.

As for the Wii U, the company would only say that “hardware sales have increased by more than 20 percent” so far in 2015 over the same period in 2014.

We’ve asked Microsoft for comment about how their systems sell. We’ll update with any new information.

I was very close when earlier in this thread I predicted The Order not charting. As suspected, and being proven on PSN digital charts, The Order is seriously overtracked by VGC.

395k N3DS sold.

VGC has global PS4 LTD tracking exactly right as of now. Which means it is highly unlikely that VGC has undertracked PS4 by any substantial amount. So that leads to only one conclusion: 3DS sold considerably less than VGC estimated, and Nintendo PR at the time of N3DS launch was probably shipments.

OTOH someone has suggested maybe NPD has split 3DS and N3DS numbers, which may be an explanation. But that would be pretty unusual for NPD wouldn't it? N3DS is a pretty different piece of kit compared to 3DS, but it's still just a 3DS upgrade / refresh, not an entirely new product.

3DS is gonna win, I'm positive!