'NBA 2K20' needed only one month to become the best-selling game of 2019

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• "NBA 2K20" became the best-selling game of the year in only its first month on the shelves, according to data from The NPD Group.
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• September was a strong month for sports video games, with four sports titles among the 10 best-sellers.
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• Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening" and Microsoft's "Gears 5" were also among September's best-sellers as console exclusives.
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• The Nintendo Switch has led the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 in console sales for 10 straight months, and the Switch recently surpassed 15 million sales in North America.
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The NBA season is still days away, and the league has been dealing with an international scandal in China, but that hasn't stopped fans from making "NBA 2K20" the best-selling game of the year so far.

Published by Take Two Interactive, "NBA 2K20" had the biggest launch of any sports video game, according to data from The NPD Group. The "NBA 2K" series is now the sixth-best-selling video game franchise in history, passing "Guitar Hero." Three more sports games made by Electronic Arts were among the 10 best-selling games in September: "FIFA 20," "Madden 20," and "NHL 20."

"NBA 2K20" launched September 5, and it's just one of several high-profile September releases that are set to dominate the holiday season. Take Two's co-op shooter "Borderlands 3" had the second-biggest launch of the month, overcoming a bit of controversy involving the developer's CEO and the decision to make the game exclusive to the newly launched Epic Games Store for PC players.

"The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening," a Nintendo Switch exclusive, was the fourth-best-selling title, and Microsoft's "Gears 5" was the seventh-best-selling game, despite being included with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

The Nintendo Switch continues to dominate video game hardware sales. Nintendo recently announced that it had sold more than 15 million Switch consoles in North America, and the Switch has outsold the older Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles for 10 straight months.

Nintendo released the $200 Switch Lite on September 20, a small portable-only version of the Switch that's $100 cheaper. Microsoft and Sony are preparing to launch their next consoles during the 2020 holiday season.