Monster Hunter Rise is the second best-selling game of March, according to NPD report

Monster Hunter Rise continues to be a knockout hit on the Nintendo Switch, earning the No. 2 spot on the March 2021 NPD.

Industry tracking firm The NPD Group released a list of the top 20 best-selling games of March which included Monster Hunter Rise at the second spot. Monster Hunter Rise is also the best-selling Switch game of the month, beating out games like Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Super Mario 3D All-Stars.

"Monster Hunter: Rise debuted as March's second best-seller, while also ranking first on Switch," said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. "With just one month on the market, lifetime dollar sales of Monster Hunter: Rise rank second among all Monster Hunter franchise releases, trailing only Monster Hunter: World."

Capcom recently reported that Monster Hunter Rise had shipped 5 million units since its launch on March 26.

Video games continue to grow in terms of sales while the ongoing pandemic rages on. In The NPD Group's game report, video game sales saw an 18% increase when compared to a year ago. This is also the first NPD game report to take early stay-at-home orders into effect.

In addition, the Nintendo Switch was the best-selling hardware platform in both units and dollars during the month of March.

The Nintendo Switch continues to hold its own against its next-gen competition, but for how long remains to be seen. According to the same NPD report, the PlayStation 5 is the fastest-selling console in U.S. history in both unit and dollar sales.

Monster Hunter Rise remains a console exclusive on the Nintendo Switch but will arrive on the PC in 2022. In our Monster Hunter Rise review, we called it the "best Monster Hunter game to date," and a candidate for one of the best Nintendo Switch games of all time.