March wasn’t a good month for anyone. But it was slightly less awful for people who sell video games. That’s especially true if the video game is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With people in the United States isolating themselves for much of the month, many people obviously turned to safe at-home entertainment. As a result, consumers in the U.S. spent $1.597 billion on gaming hardware, new full games, and accessories plus game cards, according to the March 2020 NPD report.

That is the most March money the industry has generated in NPD’s reporting since $1.8 billion in 2008. Here are the full numbers:

March 2020 Dollar Sales Mar’19 Mar’20 Change Total Video Game Sales $1,186m $1,597m 35% Video Game Hardware $282m $461m 63% Video Game Software (Physical and Full Game Digital Formats from the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation, STEAM and Xbox platforms for DLP Participants) $550m $739m 34% Video Game Accessories & Game Cards $354m $397m 12%

“March 2020 tracked spending across video game hardware, software, and accessories and game cards totaled $1.6 billion, gaining 35% when compared to a year ago,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. “Year-to-date 2020 tracked spending across video game hardware, software, and accessories and game cards totaled $3 billion, declining 4 percent when compared to a year ago.”

This is a massive turnaround for an industry that was circling the end-of-the-generation drain for most of the last year. Through the first two months of 2020, sales in the U.S. had declined 28% compared to the same period in 2019. So what closed the gap? Animal Crossing and a plethora of high-profile new releases.

And yes, COVID-19-related social distancing likely gets some of the credit as well. That drove people to pick up new hardware. The Switch set an all-time record for unit sales for any March month since NPD began tracking. But PlayStation 4 and Xbox One dollar sales also jumped 25% each year-over-year.

March 2020 was also the best month for accessory spending in the history of the NPD report.

Let’s get to the software charts.

March 2020 NPD: Top 20 best-selling games of the month in the U.S.

NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers. But not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesn’t share its first-party digital sales, and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales. This chart also does not include microtransactions, subscriptions, or anything beyond full-game sales. With those caveats in mind, it is best to think of this as a very useful snapshot of a much more dynamic industry.

These charts are sorted by dollar sales — not number of units sold.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons* Call of Duty: Modern Warfare MLB: The Show 20 Resident Evil 3 NBA 2K20 Doom Eternal* Persona 5: Royal Grand Theft Auto V Borderlands 3 Mario Kart 8: Deluxe* Nioh 2 Red Dead Redemption II FIFA 20 [EA Sports] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX* Madden NFL 20 [EA Sports] Just Dance 2020 Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order Mortal Kombat 11 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Remastered

* Digital sales not included

^ Steam sales not included

# Minecraft digital sales on Xbox and PlayStation included

In terms of game sales, this was the best March of the generation.

“Dollar sales of tracked video game software grew 34% in March compared to a year ago, to $739 million,” said Piscatella. “March tracked software spending reached its highest total for a March month since 2011. Nine of the top 10 best-selling games of March 2020 generated higher dollar sales than similarly ranked titles a year ago.”

The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched in 2013. The Wii U debuted a year before that (Switch launched March 2017). But last month beat all the previous March periods in terms of games sales.

Even blockbuster results like these couldn’t offset the overall trend completely, though.

“Total first quarter tracked software spending fell 8%, to $1.4 billion,” said Piscatella.

Big new games like Resident Evil 3 and Doom Eternal contributed to the strong month. But if you had to pick one game to represent March 2020, that’s easy. Let’s talk about Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a smash hit

Does it seem like everyone in your life is talking about Animal Crossing constantly? Well, it seems that way probably because everyone in your life is playing it.

“Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the best-selling game of March 2020 and the second best-selling game of 2020 year to date,” said Piscatella. “Animal Crossing: New Horizons achieved the third highest launch month physical dollar and unit sales of any Nintendo published game in tracked history. Among Nintendo published games, only Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Dec 2018) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Mar 2008) debuted with higher physical software sales in a launch month.”

I’m going to repeat that for everyone in the back.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons had a better launch month than any Mario or Zelda game since the NPD started tracking. It is now obvious that this series stands among Nintendo’s most important.

And the glow-up is happening before our eyes.

Here’s another astonishing tidbit from The NPD Group.

“Launch month dollar sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons have exceeded the lifetime sales of all other Animal Crossing franchise games, making Animal Crossing: New Horizons the best-selling game in franchise history,” said Piscatella.

PlayStation’s MLB The Show 20 thrives as real sports wither

“MLB The Show 20 was the third best-selling game of March 2020, and instantly becomes the fifth best-selling game of 2020,” said Piscatella. “And MLB The Show 20 is the fastest-selling game in MLB The Show franchise history, with launch month sales significantly exceeding those of the previous best, MLB The Show 19.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the second best-selling game of March 2020 and is now the best-selling game of 2020 year to date,” said Piscatella. “March sales of Call of Duty franchise titles reached a new all-time high for a March month, exceeding the previous peak set in March 2010.”

Top 10 games so far this year

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Animal Crossing: New Horizons* Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot NBA 2K20 MLB: The Show 20 Grand Theft Auto V Resident Evil 3 Madden NFL 20 [EA Sports] Mario Kart 8: Deluxe* Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order

Top 10 games of the last 12 months

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare NBA 2K20 Madden NFL 20 [EA Sports] Borderlands 3 Mortal Kombat 11 Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order Grand Theft Auto V Mario Kart 8: Deluxe* FIFA 20 [EA Sports] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*

March 2020 NPD: Top 10 Xbox One Games

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Resident Evil 3 Doom Eternal* NBA 2K20 Grand Theft Auto V Madden NFL 20 [EA Sports] Red Dead Redemption II Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order FIFA 20 [EA Sports] Minecraft: Xbox One Edition

March 2020 NPD: Top 10 PS4 games

MLB: The Show 20 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Persona 5: Royal Resident Evil 3 NBA 2K20 Nioh 2 Doom Eternal* Grand Theft Auto V Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Remastered FIFA 20 [EA Sports]

March 2020 NPD: Top 10 Nintendo Switch games