The PlayStation 5 is officially the fastest-selling console in United States history. This news comes from the latest NPD sales report, which tracks the top-selling hardware and software for the month of March 2021.
As NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella explains, the PS5 is the fastest selling console in the U.S. in “both unit and dollar sales.” Despite this, the system has been relatively difficult to find across retailers since its launch last year.
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Notably, the Nintendo Switch was once again the bestselling console for the month overall, and has been a top-seller for a record-breaking 27 consecutive months in the United States. Nintendo has struggled to keep up with high demand and has hinted that Switch consoles might be scarce throughout 2021.
Elsewhere in the NPD results is the list of March 2021’s bestselling games. Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War was the bestselling game of the month, climbing from the number two spot last month. Capcom’s Monster Hunter Rise debuted as the second-bestselling game of the month, followed by Outriders at number three.
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Nintendo published seven out of the top 20 bestselling games including Super Mario 3D World, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Speaking of which, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is now the bestselling racing game in U.S. history, surpassing 33 million units sold.
One thing to note about Nintendo is that it does not provide digital sales stats, meaning all of its games have topped the charts on boxed copies alone. The same can be said about publisher 2K.
Finally, consumers spent a record-breaking $5.6 billion during March 2021, 18% higher than the same time in 2020. In total, consumers spent $680 million on hardware alone throughout the month of March.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.