Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

April charts: Video game sales jump 20 percent

By
mortal-kombat-2011-logo
Image used with permission by copyright holder

After many disappointing months, NPD reports that total U.S. sales of video game products reached $961.2 million in April, up 20 percent from $802.4 million a year ago. Software performed stronger still, with sales climbing 26 percent thanks to strong showings by Mortal Kombat and Portal 2. This is the first month since November, says NPD analyst Anita Frazier, that video game software saw increases in both dollars and number of units sold.

Top 10 games for April

  1. Mortal Kombat 2011 – Warner Bros. Interactive -PS3, 360
  2. Portal 2 – Electronic Arts – 360, PS3, PC
  3. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars – LucasArts – Wii, NDS, 360, 3DS, PS3, PC
  4. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Activision Blizzard – 360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC
  5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters – Electronic Arts – 360, PS3, Wii
  6. Crysis 2 – Electronic Arts – 360, PS3, PC
  7. Just Dance 2 – Ubisoft – Wii
  8. Michael Jackson The Experience – Ubisoft – 360, Wii, PS3, NDS, PSP
  9. Pokemon White Version – Nintendo – NDS
  10. NBA 2K11 – Warner Bros. Interactive – PS3, 360

Five of the top 10 games sold more than 250,000 units, up from only 2 games last year. Mortal Kombat (review) posted sales between 900,000 and 1 million units. Though it beat Portal 2 (review), sales on Valve’s Steam online store are not counted by NPD. We would guess that a great deal of its sales came from that channel. We also encourage you Pokemon fans to start buying Pokemon Black Version too. For some reason, the white version is selling more. Don’t be racist.

Recommended Videos

Hardware sales

  • Xbox 360 – 297,000 units
  • Nintendo DS – (unknown, but higher than PS3)
  • PlayStation 3 – 204,000 units
  • Nintendo 3DS – 194,000 units
  • Nintendo Wii – 172,000 units

These numbers come via MarketWatch. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 continues to dominate sales thanks to the success of Kinect and the Xbox Live platform. Sony’s April sales don’t appear to have been affected by the massive PS3 network outage that is still ongoing, but we imagine that May’s sales could see a dip.

We don’t yet know the exact number of Nintendo DS systems sold, but it was the number two system and posted higher numbers than the 3DS. While it seems bad, this may actually be a good sign for Nintendo. It proves that interest in its DS line is still extremely high with about 400,000 combined unit sales. If it can release some decent games for 3DS and better explain the benefits of the system it could see a rebound as the year progresses. However, as it stands, 3DS sales dropped by 50 percent from March, during which it was only available for three days. Wii continues to underwhelm, likely due to a lack of strong and exciting software for the platform.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jeffrey Van Camp
Jeffrey Van Camp
Former Digital Trends Contributor
As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…
Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days
A viking slashes a tree in Volgarr the Viking 2.

Developer Digital Eclipse is working on a surprising project: Volgarr the Viking 2. The 2D retro sequel will launch on August 6 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The news is an out of left field reveal. The first Volgarr the Viking game released in 2013 and was made as an ode to 1080s classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite being a small release, it sold over 1 million copies over the past decade. As revealed during today's Guerrilla Collective stream, the series is coming back with a new sequel by Digital Eclipse, the team behind this year's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Read more
3 Days of Play PS Plus games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Key art for Streets of Rage 4.

June 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty great month for PlayStation players. Not only are we coming off an entertaining State of Play showcase, but a new Days of Play initiative surrounding all the video game showcases this month is bringing a lot of new PS Plus additions with it. Many of those games hit PS Plus this week, and three in particular stand out to us.

For owners of Sony's oft-neglected PlayStation VR2, the first game is one of its rare exclusives that take full advantage of the headset's eye-tracking by seeing how often players blink. The next is a new PS Plus Essential game that's a revival of Sega's classic beat-'em-up series for the modern gaming era. Finally, the last title is an atmospheric and eerie fishing game that should entice fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Before Your Eyes

Read more
3 first-party Xbox Game Pass games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Gears 5 Kait Hero Close Up

Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That's really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.

The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal

Read more