Majora's Mask 3D bests Evolve in February US retail sales

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D was the top-selling game in US retail, analyst company NPD Group has revealed.

Majora's Mask 3D is the fastest-selling Legend of Zelda hand-held game in US history, Nintendo said, with more than 515,000 combined physical and digital units sold. Not bad for an updated version of a 15-year-old game.

Second and third places were Evolve and Dying Light respectively. The latter was expected as Dying Light launched in January, but Evolve's place as number two might be somewhat surprising as it's both a brand new game (as opposed to a remake) and available on multiple platforms. Then again, Majora's Mask has a huge cult following and it launched alongside the fancy New Nintendo 3DS.

Nintendo's other big 3DS-exclusive, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, didn't fare so well, though it did crack the top 10 in 10th place.

That's still an improvement for a series that's long struggled to gain any traction in the west, despite it being an Essential title, according to Dan Pearson. Listen to Dan Pearson.

In fact, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate sold more than 290,000 combined physical and digital units last month in the US, and is now the fastest-selling Monster Hunter title - across all platforms - in US history. It's also Capcom's fastest-selling title on the Nintendo 3DS.

Meanwhile, The Order: 1886 failed to make much headway for a triple A PS4-exclusive, as it placed number nine on the list.

NPD Group also noted that this is the first month where every game on the top 10 retail list was an eight-generation title. "The first 15 months the PS4 and the XBO combined unit sales have outsold the PS3 and the Xbox 360 combined 15 month totals by close to 60 per cent," noted NPD Group's Liam Callahan.

The top 10 retail games in the US for February 2015 are as follows:

• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS), Nintendo
• Evolve (XBO, PS4, PC), Take 2 Interactive
• Dying Light (PS4, XBO, PC), Warner Bros. Interactive
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (XBO, PS4, 360, PS3, PC), Activision Blizzard
• Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3), Take 2 Interactive
• NBA 2K15 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3, PC), Take 2 Interactive
• Dragon Ball: Xenoverse (PS4, XBO, PS3, 360), Bandai Namco Games
• Minecraft (360, PS3, XBO, PS4), Microsoft / Sony
• The Order: 1886 (PS4), Sony
• Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS), Capcom USA