NPD Sales For April 2016
April wasn’t a fantastic month for video game sales, at least at retail. There’s not a tracking service in place yet for digital goods sold, so it’s difficult to get a perfect picture of the health of the gaming industry. Looking at this April compared to last year’s April, hardware sales were down 23%, software was down 21%, and accessories were up 4%. In total, gamers spent $509.5 million this April versus $598.1 million last April.
Nintendo only had one game make the top 10 software sales for April: Star Fox Zero for the Wii U. It came in at number 10 on the list, but it would have been number 5 if you look at the games on a platform by platform basis instead of combining sales from all systems into one number. If that type of reporting were used, Bravely Second would have come in at number 9 on the list. The overall top 10 software for April was:
- Dark Souls III (PS4, Xbox One)
- Ratchet & Clank (PS4)
- MLB 16: The Show (PS4, PS3)
- Tom Clancy’s The Division (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
- Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
- Minecraft (Xbox One, 360, PS4, PS3)
- Quantum Break (Xbox One)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
- NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- Star Fox: Zero (Wii U)
May should be an even worse month for Nintendo as no retail releases are planned for this month. The next major retail game will be Kirby: Planet Robobot on June 10.
[Source: Venturebeat]
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
