14 DAY TRIAL // Dying Light, the open world undead-powered action game from Techland, has managed to take the number one position in the United States video game sales chart for the first month of the year, which is always good news for new releases, as they tend to deliver muted performance during the period.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the first-person shooter from developer Sledgehammer Games and publisher Activision, has been relegated to second place despite the fact that it has received the first major downloadable content pack, called Havoc, on the Xbox One and the 360 and the Exo Zombies mode has been added.
Third place in the United States video game sales chart is occupied by Grand Theft Auto V from Rockstar, which is riding the popularity generated by the launch of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 versions of the open world recreation of Los Angeles and its surroundings.
The rest of the top ten includes:
Minecraft - Xbox One, 360, PlayStation 4, PS3 NBA 2K15 - Xbox One, 360, PlayStation 4, PS3, PC Super Smash Bros. - Wii U, 3DS Far Cry 4 - Xbox One, 360, PlayStation 4, PS3, PC Madden NFL 15 - Xbox One, 360, PlayStation 4, PS3 Destiny - Xbox One, 360, PlayStation 4, PS3 FIFA 15 - Xbox One, 360, PlayStation 4, PS3, PC.
Liam Callahan, an NPD Group analyst, is quoted by VG247 as saying that “In January 2015, Dying Light had the highest first month of sales for new IP in the survival-horror genre, exceeding the previous record, The Evil Within, which launched in October 2014.”
He also claims that software sales were significantly boosted by newly launched titles, which performed 200 percent better than they did in January 2014.
Dying Light shows how smaller titles can perform when they choose a good launch period
Dying Light was not seen as one of the big launches of the year, but the title managed to make an impact by arriving at a moment when players were hungry for a new experience to try out.
Overall software sales for January 2015 grew by 5 percent to 242.3 million dollars (184 million Euro).
The NPD Group is not at the moment tracking digital sales, which might mean that some sales are underreported as more players shift to downloads and use Steam on the PC.
