The first month of 2022 is in the books and the start to the new calendar year was a very eventful one for the world of gaming. Between several massive acquisitions from Microsoft buying out Activision Blizzard and Sony picking up Bungie and several high-profile game releases from Pokemon to Monster Hunter, many of gaming's biggest names sought to hit the ground running in January, and now the numbers are coming out to show January 2022's biggest winners.
January 2022 saw plenty of major launches throughout the first month of the year as some of gaming's biggest franchises saw both new games and new versions across multiple platforms. Capcom's Monster Hunter Rise and Sony Interactive Entertainment's God of War both finally saw their long-awaited transitions to PC, while Nintendo closed out the month with a bang, releasing the highly-anticipated Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Now, popular market research company the NPD Group has released its data detailing the hottest games and consoles of last month.
The data from the NPD Group awards the title of January 2022's best-selling console to the PS5, winning the race both in total units moved and sales figures. Closely following PlayStation in both categories was the PS5's biggest rival, the Xbox Series X/S, with both consoles combining for a 22% increase in hardware sales from last year's totals. The combined hardware sales in January 2022 also totaled the second-highest January of all-time, only passed by January 2009 which saw the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 at their peak popularity.
The report also listed the top-selling games of January with the late entry of Pokemon Legends: Arceus storming into the month's top spot, despite only being released a few days before the end of January. Call of Duty: Vanguard followed closely behind Pokemon in claiming the #2 spot for January while Monster Hunter Rise and God of War also saw placement within the month's Top 5, both seeing significant spikes in their sales correlating to the games finally coming to PC. Madden NFL 22 rounded out the fifth spot in the list, bolstered by the beginning of the NFL's playoffs.
PlayStation's sales numbers continue to soar even as Sony has struggled to keep the PS5 on store shelves since its release in late 2020. PS5 sales recently eclipsed 17.3 million, putting the PS5's sales ahead of the Wii U after only a year, despite frequent shortages over the past year causing significant supply issues for many major retailers. While Sony has reportedly tempered its sales expectations for 2022 due to these shortages, a year packed with major games like Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarok will look to keep the PS5 on top throughout 2022.
Source: IGN
