April's Best-Selling Consoles And Games Revealed (US)

The NPD has released its report for April 2019, revealing the best-selling consoles and games of the month in the US , and providing an overall snapshot of the industry’s health during the month.

Starting with game sales, Mortal Kombat 11 was April’s best-selling game of the month, and immediately became the No. 2 best-selling game of 2019 so far, only behind Kingdom Hearts III. Also of note is that Mortal Kombat 11 is the first time a third-party game was the Switch’s top-seller for a month since Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was No. 1 back in September 2017.

Days Gone was No. 2 in April, and it achieved sales that amounted to the seventh biggest ever for a Sony-published game during its launch month. It is also developer Sony Bend Studio’s best-selling game ever after just one month on sale in the US. MLB The Show 19 finished No. 3 in April, and it continues to be the best-selling sports game of 2019 so far (a lot of the big ones are still to come such as FIFA 20, Madden 20, NBA 2K20, and more).

Overall, video game sales across console, PC, and portable reached $427 million in April 2019, which is up 15 percent year-over-year. On a year-to-date basis, game sales have now reached $1.9 billion, which is up 4 percent.

Moving to hardware, the Nintendo Switch was April 2019’s best-selling console in terms of units sold and dollars driven, outperforming the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The 32GB neon red/blue system is 2019’s best-selling individual piece of hardware.

The strong performance of the Nintendo Switch was not matched by all platforms, as total hardware spending dropped 29 percent to $160 million in April 2019. All other platforms posted declines during the month. For 2019 year-to-date, hardware spending is down 16 percent to $918 million.

The Accessories category, which includes game cards, jumped 5 percent to $256 million. The Amiibo Super Smash Bros Series 1 packs sold the best in April, while the black DualShock 4 controller is 2019’s best-selling accessory so far. Game card and controller spending led the way. Year-to-date, Accessories spending is up 3 percent to $1.2 billion.

With hardware, software, and accessories combined, total video game spending in the US in April reached $842 million, which is up 1 percent. For 2019 so far, total spending dropped 2 percent to $4 billion.

April 2019 Best-Selling Games In The US All Platforms

1. Mortal Kombat 11
2. Days Gone
3. MLB 19 The Show
4. The Division 2^
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice^
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4^
9. NBA 2K19
10. Yoshi’s Crafted World*
11. Red Dead Redemption II
12. Mario Kart 8*
13. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
14. Minecraft#
15. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
16. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
17. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
18. Jump Force
19. Battlefield V*
20. Borderlands

* Digital sales not included

^ PC digital sales not included

# Minecraft digital sales on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One included