Switch 2 Outsells PS5 in the US in March 2026, MLB: The Show 26 Debuts in 1st - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted 9 hours ago / 4,538 Views
The Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling console in the US for March 2026 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the five-week period of March 1 to April 4.
Lifetime sales of the Switch 2 through 10 months are currently 12 percent higher than the Switch and it remains the second fastest selling hardware platform in US history, trailing only the Game Boy Advance. The 10th month for the Switch was December 2017.
The PlayStation 5 came in second in terms of units sold and dollar sales. Spending on PS5 hardware is up three percent year-on-year.
Sales for the PlayStation Portal are up 11 percent year-on-year as the price increased in early April of this year.
Overall spending on video games in March increased 12 percent year-on-year from $4.76 billion to $5.30 billion. Spending on video game content was up eight percent from $4.22 billion to $4.55 billion, while video game hardware sales increased 69 percent from $297 million to $500 million. Spending on accessories increased five percent from $239 million to $252 million.
In terms of 2026 total sales, overall spending on video games is up five percent year-on-year from $13.83 billion to $14.56 billion. Spending on video game content increased three percent from $12.40 billion to $12.83 billion, while video game hardware sales grew 39 percent from $0.78 billion to $1.07 billion. Spending on accessories is down less than one percent from $654 million to $653 million.
"US video game spending jumped 12% in March, driven by console content and hardware," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella. "Crimson Desert, MLB The Show 26 and Pokémon Pokopia were among several new releases fueling overall spending growth."
He added, "March video game content spending increased by 8% versus a year ago, to $4.6B. Console content spending grew 22%, driven by a 40% gain in digital premium downloads. PC, Cloud and Non-Console VR content spending surged 28%, while non-mobile subscription climbed 20%."
MLB: The Show 26 debuted in first place on the monthly charts and is already the second best-selling game of the year. First month dollar sales are the second highest total in franchise history, trailing only MLB: The Show 21.
Resident Evil: Requiem remains the best-selling game of 2026 and after two months is in the top five best-selling Resident Evil games in the US of all-time in terms of dollar sales. It trails Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 4 (2023), Resident Evil: Village, and the original Resident Evil 4.
WWE 2K25 debuted in third place and is already the third best-selling game of the year. Marathon debuted in fourth place and is the sixth best-selling game of the year.
Despite not including digital sales, Pokémon Pokopia debuted in fifth place and is the 12th best-selling game of 2026.
There were two other games to debut in the top 20 with Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection in seventh place and Crimson Desert in 15th place. The latter does not include digital sales.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach returned to the top 20 in 17th place following the PC release, which accounted for 85 percent of the game's dollar sales.
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for March 2026:
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in 2026 year-to-date:
Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on PlayStation platforms in March 2026:
Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on Xbox platforms in March 2026:
Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on Nintendo platforms in March 2026:
Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on PC in March 2026:
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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"Lifetime sales of the Switch 2 through 10 months are currently 12 percent higher than the Switch and it remains the second fastest selling hardware platform in US history" What's the fastest selling one? The wii?
Microsoft still not giving digital mlb sales?? what for??
Crimson Desert placing 15th for just physical only sales on PS5 and Xbox Series is pretty amazing. Remember there is no physical PC retail at all, so all PC sales are just completely missing from that ranking. But even on consoles, you gotta guess that most people knew going in that this is a huge 100+ hour game that will probably 'live' on their console storage space for years and years to come, and bought it digitally.
