For those of you who follow the monthly number-crunching, estimate-heavy sensation known far and wide as NPD (National Purchase Diary) monthly sales estimates here at Popzara, March 2017 was the Big One you’ve been waiting for. That’s right: the launch of a wildly anticipated new console from Nintendo, as well as an equally wild new launch title, made for the most interesting and record-breaking month of the War God in years.

As our regular analysts Cory Galliher and Nathan Evans settle in for the fun, let’s get right to what we’re all waiting for: could Nintendo sweep in and reverse the alarming downward trend in sales the gaming industry has faced for several years now? Let’s just say the launch of the Switch and its marquee title cast a shadow all its own, and that shadow was golden.

In a story we haven’t seen in years and years, it took a new Nintendo console (and one heckuva launch title) to essentially rescue the gaming industry from certain doom and gloom. Total sales of new gaming hardware, software, and accessories topped $1.36 billion – a healthy 24 percent increase over last year’s $1.09 billion.

Sales of new gaming hardware was up an astonishing 91 percent over last year ($485 million from $235 million), thanks primarily to the launch of the new Nintendo Switch, which handily outsold both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

While NPD doesn’t usually reveal actual numbers (anymore, sadly) they were quite generous with them for Nintendo’s latest: the Switch sold over 906,000 units, which tops the previous Nintendo record-holder (going way back to 2001 with the original Gameboy Advance) for first-month sales.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, available for both the Switch and Wii U (RIP) sold a combined 1.3 million copies, with 900,000 going to the newer console. While technically not the month’s best-selling title (the multiplatform Ghost Recon Wildlands nabbed that honor), there was no denying the massive importance of the latest entry to Nintendo’s thirty-year old (!) franchise to help launch the Switch. NPD estimates that 99% of all new Switch buyers picked up the game (other estimates having those attach figures even higher).

The sell-through was so good, in fact, that NPD analyst Sam Naji said the new Zelda enjoyed “the highest attach rate for any non-bundled title for a new gaming platform since NPD began tracking in 1995.”

The real winners were software, which benefited from several heavy hitters that all saw tremendous action at retail shelves (and digital downloads). Total sales of new console games were up 5 percent over last year ($612 million over $585 million). Unfortunately, this upward mobility didn’t extend to PC software, which continued its negative slide and was down a distressing 25 percent from last year ($29 million from $39 million).

As golden as Breath of the Wild proved to be, it wasn’t alone in helping shake things up at retail shelves last month. Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands topped the charts, while EA’s troubled Mass Effect: Andromeda had the second-best debut for the space franchise. Not to be outdone in the adventure market, Sony’s franchise-launching Horizon: Zero Dawn also found an audience, and was technically the highest-charting console exclusive of the month.

Even gaming accessories were boosted thanks to the Switch’s golden halo,