Despite Its Many Issues, Anthem Was February's Top-Selling Game

TheGamer

By Lou Flavius

Published Mar 21, 2019

BioWare's new Anthem title was February's top-selling game, despite the many negative issues surrounding its launch.

BioWare's new Anthem title was February's top-selling game, despite the many negatives surrounding its launch late last month.

The looter shooter has been many things to many people. For some, it's a great game that delivers an amazing experience thanks to the flying capabilities and lots more. However, several others have been critical of the many issues such as freezes, lengthy loading screens, crashes, and even the bricking of a few consoles.

There were even reports of Sony handing out refunds with no questions asked following the complaints of disgruntled PlayStation 4 owners who bought the game and witnessed their systems shutting down while playing.

However, according to a report from the NPD group, Anthem was the game that made the most sales in February, despite only having seven days to work with since it was released on February 22. Of course, there were quite a lot of pre-orders too, so that certainly helped.

PREVIOUSLY: BioWare Was 'Very Disappointed' With Anthem Launch Issues, But Has High Hopes For Future

The NPD also revealed that Anthem was the second-best selling game for this year and holds the second-highest launch month sale figure for a BioWare game, with 2012's Mass Effect 3 topping the list in that regard.

So, amid all of the complaints, negativity, and vitriol (not to mention all of the attention Apex Legends garnered), Anthem still managed to top the sales charts for February.

It is followed by anime fighting title Jump Force, with the sales numbers making it the third-highest selling game within the month of its launch to ever come from Bandai Namco.

Kingdom Hearts III, January's highest seller, came in third place and is still the best selling game of 2019. It is also the fastest selling title in Kindom Hearts history, as it even beat Kingdom Hearts II's two-month sales by over 80 percent.

Below is a list of February's top 10 selling games, per the NPD:

(1) Anthem

(2) Jump Force

(3) Kingdom Hearts III

(4) Far Cry New Dawn

(5) Red Dead Redemption 2

(6) Resident Evil 2 (Remake)

(7) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

(8) Metro: Exodus

(9) NBA 2K19

(10) Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

While game sales have gone up, hardware purchases have declined 12 percent compared to a year ago. Nintendo, however, made its biggest raking from hardware sales since 2011, since the Nintendo Switch has become the best-selling console for this year.