NPD: Marvel's Avengers and Mario 3D All-Stars Top September's Best Sellers List

This morning, the NPD Group released its monthly video game sales rankings for September 2020, and there are some pretty intriguing success stories on the list. For instance, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella points out that Crusader Kings 3 had the best launch month in sales of any Paradox interactive title, and even Star Wars: Squadrons squeaked into the top 10 despite just barely making the cut-off as an October release. The real big winners, though, are Marvel's Avengers and Super Mario 3D All-Stars even in spite of how those were both received.

Avengers and All-Stars were, respectively, first and second on the top sellers list for the month, bumping down last month's number one of Madden NFL 21 to the third rank. The Avengers game trails just Insomniac's Spider-Man for US launch month sales of a superhero game, and the 3D All-Stars collection had 2020's second-best debut month for physical sales only behind Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

While the retail release of Marvel's Avengers outdid many of the expectations set by its beta, some notable bugs and a lack of endgame content have tarnished it for some. Just last week, Crystal Dynamics Studio Head Scot Amos addressed causes for (and issues created by) the dwindling player base in Marvel's Avengers.

As for Mario 3D All-Stars, while it's still earned praise based on the strengths of the three titles in the collection, the nature of its limited-time physical and digital release doesn't sit well with many, nor does the fact that none of the included titles saw significant visual upgrades. That doesn't appear to have hurt its sales at all, though—and remember, it came in second behind Avengers despite only launching on one platform instead of three, and NPD doesn't track digital Switch sales. Piscatella notes it ranks as the sixth biggest physical launch month for a Nintendo title in the US ever.

Further down the chart, Activision's Tony Hawk remaster skated into a fourth place debut while Crash Bandicoot 4 arrived at the eleventh spot, and a few recent stalwarts like Ghost of Tsushima and Ring Fit Adventure (at #12 and #13, respectively) have stayed close to the top 10. Sales for September 2020 were 10% higher than the same month a year ago, continuing the year's trend of higher game sales even prior to next month's launch of the PS5 and new Xboxes.