August NPD: PS4 Still Leads, Madden And Diablo Perform Well

Another month, another PlayStation 4 victory.

According to the August NPD results , Sony's next-gen console was the #1 system in the US for the eighth consecutive month.

The top two games were Madden NFL 15 and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls , but while next-gen software did well, the overall software sales fell 22 percent when compared to August 2013. NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan said this was due to a decline in previous-gen sales:

"Deep declines in seventh generation software (Xbox 360/PS3/Wii) of 57 percent were not offset by growth in eighth generation software, leading to a net decrease of console software sales of $47 million."

Also, don't forget that last year's August saw the release of several huge titles, including Saints Row IV , Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Disney Infinity . With the exception of the two games mentioned above, August 2014 was pretty slow. As for the hardware, sales spiked, rising 116 percent due to "continued strong sales" of the new consoles. In fact, the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U comprised nearly 70 percent of all monthly sales.

And yes, the PS4 was once again tops in the hardware category. The Xbox One got a price drop back in June but now, even after two full months at market with the new $399 price tag, Microsoft hasn't managed to outstrip Sony on its home turf. Said PlayStation Marketing senior vice president Guy Longworth:

"PlayStation 4 was number one in hardware sales for the eighth consecutive month and remains the cumulative leader for next generation game consoles. For the third consecutive month, PlayStation was number one in combined home console hardware sales (PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3)."

And here's the top 10 software list for August: