NetherRealm's DC brawler the best-selling title in region last month; overall industry sales slide 25 percent; Xbox 360 sales hit 130,000.
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Rounding out the top five performers for the month were .
Overall, industry sales slid by 25 percent to $495.2 million. However, NPD analyst Liam Callahan points out that the sales figures make up only about half of the total consumer spend for the month.
"When taking into account our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in April such as used and rentals at $76 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 $267 million, the total consumer spend in April is $802 million," he said.
In addition, Callahan pointed out that the Easter holiday typically accounts for a 10 percent boost in sales for the month. Since Easter fell in March this year and in April last year, a direct comparison is "difficult," he said.
Regarding hardware, total sales plummeted by 42 percent to $109.5 million. Microsoft was again the market leader, selling 130,000 Xbox 360 units in the month, . Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform (hardware, software, and accessories) was $208 million.
Sony has not divulged PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita sales information for the month, while Nintendo , some 20,000 fewer than the 75,000 Wii systems in the period.
As for software, this category decreased 17 percent in April to $267.8 million in April. Though the overall sector declined year-over-year, sales of April 2013 titles posted positive figures over April 2012, which was .
"Despite overall declines, April title launches in 2013 fared better than games that launched in April 2012, up 118 percent in unit sales and 130 percent in dollar sales," Callahan said. "This increase was driven by games like Injustice: Gods Among Us, Dead Island: Riptide, and Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins."
Separately, Nintendo announced that it has sold 2.1 million first-party 3DS games through the first four months of the year, up 52 percent over last year.
"In 2012, it took 30 weeks for Nintendo 3DS to sell 2 million units of first-party software. In 2013, the platform accomplished that same feat in 18 weeks," Nintendo said.
Nintendo said sold 140,000 units in the month (physical and digital), boosting its life-to-date total to 530,000 units.
The only Wii U title Nintendo revealed sales statistics for was , which has now sold nearly 770,000 combined physical and digital units to date.
Shifting to accessories, this sector fell 19 percent to $131.4 million for April 2013.
"Though every accessory type experienced year-over-year declines in April 2013, year-to-date trending increased by over 20 percent for the combined sales of point cards, headsets/headphones, and All Other Accessories (which includes Skylanders)," Callahan said.
APRIL US GAME SALES (April 7-May 4, 2013) OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total retail sales: $495.2 million (-25%)
Non-PC hardware: $109.5 million (-42%)
Non-PC software: $254.3 (-17%)
Accessories: $131.4 (19%)
Total software: $267.8 million (-17%)
TOP 10 GAMES FOR APRIL 2013 Title (Platforms) - Publisher
1. Injustice: Gods Among Us (X360, PS3, Wii U) - Warner Bros.
2. Dead Island: Riptide (X360, PS3, PC) - Deep Silver
3. BioShock: Infinite (X360, PS3, PC) - Take-Two
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (X360, PS3, PC, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
5. Defiance - (X360, PS3, PC) - Trion Worlds
6. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) - Nintendo
7. NBA 2K13 (X360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC) - Take-Two Interactive
8. Skylanders Giants (Wii, X360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U) - Activision Blizzard
9. Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins (3DS) - Nintendo
10. MLB 13: The Show (PS3, PS Vita) - Sony
Over the past week, six of the top ten best-selling games in Japan are for the 3DS: [3DS] Tomodachi Collection: New Life [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf [PS3] Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen [3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission [PS3] Tomb Raider [PSP] Kud Wafter: Converted Edition [3DS] New Super Mario [...]
Re-release of 2012 RPG sells 125,363 units on the week of April 22.
Capcom's re-release of Dragon's Dogma, subtitled Dark Arisen, has made a good first impression in Japan.
According to a for the week of April 22, the PS3 version of the game was at second place with 125,363 units sold. The Xbox 360 version was at 13th place with 9,483 units sold. The title that beat Capcom's RPG for the first place spot was Friend Collection: New Life for the 3DS, which sold 144,903 units.
Also worth noting is the debut of two Western titles in the region. The PS3 version of Tomb Raider was at fourth place with 35,250 units sold, while the PS3 version of BioShock Infinite was at the 10th spot with 15,747 units sold.
The top 10 list for the week of April 22 is below:
Rank / Title / Publisher / System / Sales Units
1. Friend Collection: New Life / Nintendo / 3DS / 144,903
2. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen / Capcom / PS3 / 125,363
3. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon / Nintendo / 3DS / 38,884
4. Tomb Raider / Square Enix / PS3 / 35,250
5. Steins;Gate: Senkei Kousoku no Phonogram / 5pb. / PS3 / 34,292
6. Animal Crossing: New Leaf / Nintendo / 3DS / 31,711
7. PhotoKano Kiss / Kadokawa Games / PS Vita / 30,172
8. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon Portable / Kadokawa Games / PSP / 26,030
9. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 / Namco Bandai / PS3 / 17,836
10. BioShock Infinite / Take-Two Interactive Japan / PS3 / 15,747
Re-release of 2012 RPG sells 125,363 units on the week of April 22.
Capcom's re-release of Dragon's Dogma, subtitled Dark Arisen, has made a good first impression in Japan.
According to a for the week of April 22, the PS3 version of the game was at second place with 125,363 units sold. The Xbox 360 version was at 13th place with 9,483 units sold. The title that beat Capcom's RPG for the first place spot was Friend Collection: New Life for the 3DS, which sold 144,903 units.
Also worth noting is the debut of two Western titles in the region. The PS3 version of Tomb Raider was at fourth place with 35,250 units sold, while the PS3 version of BioShock Infinite was at the 10th spot with 15,747 units sold.
The top 10 list for the week of April 22 is below:
Rank / Title / Publisher / System / Sales Units
1. Friend Collection: New Life / Nintendo / 3DS / 144,903
2. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen / Capcom / PS3 / 125,363
3. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon / Nintendo / 3DS / 38,884
4. Tomb Raider / Square Enix / PS3 / 35,250
5. Steins;Gate: Senkei Kousoku no Phonogram / 5pb. / PS3 / 34,292
6. Animal Crossing: New Leaf / Nintendo / 3DS / 31,711
7. PhotoKano Kiss / Kadokawa Games / PS Vita / 30,172
8. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon Portable / Kadokawa Games / PSP / 26,030
9. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 / Namco Bandai / PS3 / 17,836
10. BioShock Infinite / Take-Two Interactive Japan / PS3 / 15,747
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon gives players multiple mansions to explore, a variety of puzzles to solve and new ghosts to capture. Armed with the Poltergust 5000, a ghost-sucking, vacuum-like invention, Luigi must complete a number of missions assigned to him by Professor E. Gadd.
Andrew N from Negative World writes: "Its the Year of Luigi, apparently, and what I originally considered to be a one-off theme to be used for a single Nintendo Direct and discarded soon after has been shown to be so much more. Luigi has been given two starring roles in 2013; one in the recently released 3DS game Luigis Mansion: Dark Moon (which is an amazing game), and another in the upcoming New Super Luigi U, DLC for New Super Mario Bros. U on the Wii U. He also plays an important role in the upcoming Mario and Luigi: Dream Team for the 3DS, where Mario can go into Luigis dreams while he sleeps. Ok fine, that sure sounds like Mario is doing all of the work again, but whatever... well take it. Furthermore, Nintendo has created several Luigi-themed Miiverse communities, and in Japan they are even releasing a Luigi-themed Nintendo 3DS XL."
