Rounding out the month's top five titles were . Of note, all top ten titles for March were sequels.

NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan explained in a statement that the $992.5 million in total sales equals only about half of the true market spend for the month.

"When you consider our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in March such as used and rentals at $190 million, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps, and the consumer spend on social network games at $670 million, we would estimate the total consumer spend in March to be just under $1.9 billion," Callahan said.

Hardware suffered in March, with "deep declines" of 32 percent in dollar spend, with stronger downturns for portable hardware than for traditional consoles. The Nintendo 3DS was an anomaly, with sales for the platform growing 9 percent year-over-year.

The NPD Group does not disclose specific console sales data, but Microsoft announced today that the and was the top-performer for the period. Sony and Nintendo have not made any sales data available.

Software sales in March 2013 across consoles, portables, and PC were up 2 percent, the first month of positive growth since November 2011.

"The performance of new launches was a major driver of the overall software growth for this month, with games launching in March 2013 selling over 40 percent more units than new launches in March 2012. There were positive trends for new launches that were seen across consoles, portables, and PC."

Callahan explained that March 2013 saw 20 percent fewer new releases, but these games generated nearly 70 percent more dollar sales per SKU than last year.

"With solid performances of new games like , 3DS software sales increased over 50 percent from last March."

March was a positive month for publisher Take-Two, as the strength of BioShock Infinite combined with continued sales of helped the publisher achieve the highest sales for an individual company since the NPD Group began tracking retail sales in 1995.

"Two strong launches for the month included Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite, which were the highest first month sales for games in these franchises," Callahan said.

Switching to accessories, this sector was flat in dollar sales during March 2013, coming in at $216.1 million.

"While accessory spending was flat in dollar sales, continued strength of Skylanders, point cards, and headsets/ headphones resulted in a 15 percent growth in unit sales for March 2013 over March 2012," Callahan said.

MARCH US GAME SALES (March 3-April 6, 2013)
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES

Total retail sales: $992.5 million (-10%)
Non-PC hardware: $221.6 million (-32%)
Non-PC software: $554.8 (-1%)
Accessories: $216.1 (0%)
Total software: $602.4 million (2%)

TOP 10 GAMES FOR MARCH 2013
Title (Platforms) - Publisher

1. BioShock Infinite (X360, PS3, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
2. Tomb Raider (X360, PS3) - Square Enix
3. Gears of War: Judgment (X360) - Microsoft
4. God of War: Ascension (PS3) Sony
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (X360, PS3, PC, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
6. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) - Nintendo
7. MLB13: The Show (PS3, PS Vita) - Sony
8. NBA 2K13 (X360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
9. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (X360, PS3, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
10. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (X360, PS3) - Namco Bandai Games

From: www.gamespot.com

In an investor note released ahead of the official NPD data this week (), the firm estimated first-month sales of Gears of War: Judgement to be around 420,000 units, less than a quarter of the two million Gears of War 3 managed in September 2011.

Sony's God of War: Ascension is estimated to have shifted 360,000 units, compared to predecessor God of War 3's 1.1 million.

High-profile third-party titles performed better, with Creutz estimating that BioShock Infinite sold 665,000 copies in the US after ten days on sale. Tomb Raider is also estimated to have shipped 696,000 units after 33 days of sale, although publisher Square Enix has said that the game did not meet its worldwide sales expectations.

The analyst firm expected overall sales trends to have improved in March 2013, but now believes the NPD group will announce that US software sales have fallen 21 percent year-on-year.

The NPD group will announce its official market data on Thursday.

From: www.gamespot.com

Tomb Raider has now been second in the charts for four weeks running.

rounds out the top three, swapping positions with Defiance since last week. The MMO shooter with a TV show spin-off has to settle for fourth place in its second week on sale.

Luigi's Mansion 2 remains in fifth for its third week, followed up by the usual assortment of familiar titles: Call of Duty: Black Ops II in sixth, Assassin's Creed III in seventh, Gears of War: Judgment in eighth, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes in ninth, and Far Cry 3 in tenth.

This week sees the release of DC Comics' fighter Injustice: Gods Among Us on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Will it be able to knock BioShock Infinite off the top spot next week?

The Top 20 UK chart for the week ending April 13:

1. BioShock Infinite
2. Tomb Raider
3. FIFA 13
4. Defiance
5. Luigi's Mansion 2
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
7. Assassin's Creed III
8. Gears of War: Judgment
9. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
10. Far Cry 3
11. Need for Speed: Most Wanted
12. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14
13. LEGO Lord of the Rings
14. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
15. Skylanders Giants
16. Halo 4
17. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
18. Just Dance 4
19. SimCity
20. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2

From: www.gamespot.com