ChartSpot: April 2005

Though they were slightly delayed by the madness of the annual E3, the April 2005 list of best-selling games from NPD Funworld charts showed a significant shake-up in the game rankings.

The biggest change came on the PC charts, where World of Warcraft was finally dethroned by Guild Wars. Following Half-Life 2's drop from the top slot, Blizzard's best-selling massively multiplayer online role-playing game had lorded over the PC realm, occasionally usurped by the Sims 2 University expansion. Now, however, NCsoft's fee-free online RPG has pushed both games into the second and third slots.

Meanwhile, the combined console and portable chart faced certain Doom...3, that is. Activision's Xbox port of the best-selling PC shooter shot straight to the top in its first month of release, besting Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games' racer Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, which came in second (PlayStation 2) and sixth (Xbox). Jade Empire, BioWare and Microsoft Game Studios' kung fu RPG, finished third despite being released in the middle of April; it came in ahead of Eidos' PS2 (8th), Xbox (10th), and Game Boy Advance (14th) versions of Lego Star Wars.

The only other entrants among the top 20 best-selling console and portable games were the critically drubbed WWE WrestleMania 21 for Xbox (9th), Mario Party Advance for the GBA (18th), and the PS2 port of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (19th). For the second month in a row, no GameCube titles made it into the top 20, although three PSP titles remained in the lower ranks following the portable's March 24 launch. No DS titles were featured in the top 20, nor did any make the portable-only top 10 chart, which featured eight PSP titles and two GBA games.

ALL CONSOLES
Last Month	Rank	Title	Platform	Publisher	Release Date	Average Price
**	1	Doom 3*	Xbox	Activision	Apr '05	$54
**	2	Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition	PS2	Take 2 Interactive	Apr '05	$50
**	3	Jade Empire*	Xbox	Microsoft	Apr '05	$50
6	4	God of War	PS2	Sony	Mar '05	$50
12	5	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory	Xbox	Ubisoft	Mar '05	$49
**	6	Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition	Xbox	Take 2 Interactive	Apr '05	$50
2	7	MVP Baseball 2005	PS2	Electronic Arts	Feb '05	$30
**	8	Lego Star Wars	PS2	Eidos Interactive	Mar '05	$40
**	9	WWE WrestleMania 21	Xbox	THQ	Apr '05	$50
**	10	Lego Star Wars	Xbox	Eidos Interactive	Apr '05	$40
1	11	Gran Turismo 4	PS2	Sony	Feb '05	$50
8	12	Major League Baseball 2K5	PS2	Take 2 Interactive	Feb '05	$19
15	13	Need For Speed: Underground Rivals	PSP	Electronic Arts	Mar '05	$50
**	14	Lego Star Wars	GBA	Eidos Interactive	Mar '05	$29
14	15	Twisted Metal: Head On	PSP	Sony	Mar '05	$40
16	16	MX vs. ATV Unleashed	PS2	THQ	Mar '05	$40
19	17	Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade	PSP	Sony Online Ent.	Mar '05	$40
**	18	Mario Party Advance	GBA	Nintendo	Mar '05	$31
**	19	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory	PS2	Ubisoft	Mar '05	$48
10	20	MVP Baseball 2005	Xbox	Electronic Arts	Feb '05	$30

PC
Last Month	Current Rank	Title	Publisher	Average Price
**	1	Guild Wars	NCsoft	$50
2	2	World of Warcraft	Vivendi Universal	$50
1	3	The Sims 2: University	Electronic Arts	$33
**	4	Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil	Activision	$34
3	5	The Sims 2	Electronic Arts	$48
**	6	Stronghold 2	2K Games	$39
5	7	Half-Life 2	Vivendi Universal	$52
12	8	Seaworld Adventure Parks Tycoon	Activision	$15
6	9	The Sims Deluxe	Electronic Arts	$20
**	10	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory	Ubisoft	$42
**	11	SWAT 4	Vivendi Universal	$48
**	12	Doom 3	Activision	$34
9	13	Halo: Combat Evolved	Microsoft	$30
16	14	Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events	Activision	$21
**	15	Empire Earth 2	Vivendi Universal	$46
**	16	Guild Wars Collector's Ed	NCsoft	$78
4	17	Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30	Ubisoft	$43
**	18	Lego Star Wars	Eidos	$30
11	19	Roller Coaster Tycoon 3	Atari	$39
10	20	Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords	LucasArts	$47

PLAYSTATION 2
Last Month	Current Rank	Title	Publisher	Average Price
**	1	Midnight Club 3: DUB	Take 2 Interactive	Apr '05	$50
5	2	God of War	Sony	Mar '05	$50
2	3	MVP Baseball 2005	Electronic Arts	Feb '05	$30
**	4	Lego Star Wars	Eidos Interactive	Mar '05	$40
1	5	Gran Turismo 4	Sony	Feb '05	$50
6	6	Major League Baseball 2K5	Rockstar Games	Feb '05	$19
8	7	MX vs. ATV Unleashed	THQ	Mar '05	$40
**	8	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory	Ubisoft	Mar '05	$48
**	9	Dynasty Warriors 5	Koei	Mar '05	$50
**	10	Dragonball Z: Sagas	Atari	Mar '05	$49

XBOX
Last Month	Rank	Title	Publisher	Release Date	Average Price
**	1	Doom 3*	Activision	Apr '05	$54
**	2	Jade Empire*	Microsoft	Apr '05	$50
5	3	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory	Ubisoft	Mar '05	$49
**	4	Midnight Club 3: DUB	Rockstar Games	Apr '05	$50
**	5	WWE WrestleMania 21	THQ	Apr '05	$50
**	6	Lego Star Wars	Eidos Interactive	Apr '05	$40
4	7	MVP Baseball 2005	Electronic Arts	Feb '05	$30
**	8	Unreal Championship 2	Midway	Apr '05	$50
6	9	Major League Baseball 2K5	Rockstar Games	Feb '05	$19
**	10	Close Combat: First to Fight	Rockstar Games	Apr '05	$40

GAMECUBE
Last Month	Rank	Title	Publisher	Release Date	Average Price
7	1	Donkey Kong: Jungle W/Bongos	Nintendo	Mar '05	$54
3	2	Super Mario Sunshine	Nintendo	Aug '02	$18
**	3	Dragonball Z: Sagas	Atari	Mar '05	$39
10	4	Pokemon Colosseum	Nintendo	Mar '04	$20
1	5	Star Fox: Assault	Nintendo	Feb '05	$50
8	6	Super Smash Brothers Melee	Nintendo	Dec '01	$30
**	7	Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker	Nintendo	Mar '03	$18
4	8	MVP Baseball 2005	Electronic Arts	Feb '05	$29
**	9	Animal Crossing	Nintendo	Sep '02	$19
6	10	Mario Party 6	Nintendo	Dec '04	$50

PORTABLE
Last Month	Rank	Title	Platform	Publisher	Release Date	Average Price
2	1	Need For Speed: Underground Rivals	PSP	Electronic Arts	Mar '05
**	2	Lego Star Wars	GBA	Eidos Interactive	Mar '05
1	3	Twisted Metal: Head-On	PSP	Sony	Mar '05
4	4	Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade	PSP	Sony Online Ent.	Mar '05
**	5	Mario Party Advance	GBA	Nintendo	Mar '05
**	6	Ridge Racer	PSP	Namco	Mar '05
10	7	Wipeout Pure	PSP	Sony	Mar '05
**	8	MLB	PSP	Sony	APR '05
9	9	Metal Gear Acid	PSP	Konami	Mar '05
**	10	Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix	PSP	Activision	Mar '05