NPD Sales Results for April 2016 | Dark Souls 3 and Ratchet and Clank Dominate

Overall:

April retail game sales are down 15% year over year.

Hardware was down 23% year over year.

Retail game sales were down 21% year over year.

Software:

Software:

1. Dark Souls III (PS4, Xbox One)
2. Ratchet & Clank (PS4)
3. MLB 16: The Show (PS4, PS3)
4. Tom Clancy’s The Division (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
5. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
6. Minecraft (Xbox One, 360, PS4, PS3)
7. Quantum Break (Xbox One)
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
9. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
10. Star Fox: Zero (Wii U)

Notes:

- Game sales couldn't keep up with Mortal Kombat X last year, which pretty much carried the industry itself.

- “Ratchet & Clank had the best launch of any game in the Ratchet & Clank franchise when adjusting for the number of days sold in the data month, with sales recapturing success not seen for the franchise since the height of the PlayStation 2 era,” said Callahan.

- “The launch of Dark Souls III marked the strongest launch in the franchise’s history,” said Callahan. “Sales for Dark Souls III nearly doubled that of its predecessor, Dark Souls II, when adjusted for days in the market.”

- "[By individual SKUs], Star Fox Zero for the Wii U was No. 5, while the Japanese role-playing game Bravely Second was No. 9. Pokken was No. 10. It’s worth noting that this is different from the NPD’s overall top 10, which combines platforms and things like special editions for a game’s sales."

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Sooo.... Quantum Break had a pretty poor debut. I guess it is a niche game now, since we were told that Souls are niche games, and it got beaten out by Dark Souls 3.

Also, congratulations to Ratchet, it seriously deserved the win.

Minecraft beat quantum break O_o

Thats got to sting for Remedy.

Dark souls 3 kicking ass.

Quantum Bomba

Before NyaDC comes in and tries to use the 'Xbox has a smaller install base' argument, I need to preemptively point out that the difference between the Xbox One and PS4 install bases in the US is minuscule- less than a million units overall. That argument won't fly.

Apparently the PS4 has pulled ahead since the launch of Halo 5, never mind.

Congrats Ratchet

Quantum Break made the chart, so I think that's a victory in itself. And GTAV still kicking ass...damn when will that game go away.

I don't believe that. What's the totals for both in NA

Will there ever be a month when Minecraft isn't top 10?

Huh, it's actually a lot bigger than a million now, you're right. My numbers predated Halo 5's release. Edited the old post.

Star Fox actually made it to top 10??

Not only did it make top 10, it's the fifth best selling individual SKU for the month.

My, my. First reviews, now sales. The Quantum Break floppage is now officially confirmed.

very surprised.

Wow people are actually buying Starfox. I guess if you're a WiiU fan you gotta buy SOMETHING :P

NPD is pointless when you can just as easily press a few buttons on your console and buy the game online and download it. I have not bought an xbox one game at a store in over three years and i know my friends are the same. The NPD software sales reveals nothing

And somehow that doesn't apply to PS4?

Or they could just not buy anything. Very few Wii U owners own only a Wii U.

Good to see Dark Souls killing it.

Didn't even realize this was today.

I said "fan", not "owner" :P

Hell I own a WiiU and have bought exactly 1 game in the last 18 months or so :P

Well I bought Star Fox Zero because it comes with a Physical copy of Star Fox Guard which I think is a Limited Run.

Of course it does, but we don't know what the numbers are who are buying digitally. I just think NPD is pointless for software sales. Who sold more consoles, it still ok to use NPD.

lol man that is some bitter and pointless damage control if I ever heard it. I'm pretty sure PS Store makes vastly more profits on games sold than XBL unless lems think all PS4 owners buy all their games in store lol.

I mean, I agree, I just don't think there are enough 'fans' to make a game chart :P

Uh, if you care about a tower defense game with mixed/mediocre reviews, that's also on the eShop... fair enough?

Xbox One hasn't even been out for 3 years. Just 2.5 years.

Praise the Sun!

This doesn't count Digital sales. The best deal for Quantum Break was to buy it digital. You got not only two Alan Wake games plus DLC, you also got the game for another platform.

EA has said that only around 20% of their games are selling digitally and they are the biggest console publishers around.

USA tend to buy more physical stuff compared to the rest of world, same with countries like Japan due to retailers.

So NPD is going to actually be very accurate on total sales of a product. Especially since all the other games on the list can be bought digitally.

So its at least 80% accurate probably higher since every other game can be bought digitally.

I have never seen a great deal though like the one MS did with Quantum Break.

I was not counting the months or maybe i just don't care that much. Look the console was released Nov 2013 it be out three years in November 2016. and by then i still will not have bought an xbox one game at a store.

PS4 won. confirmed on neogaf.

8/10 software titles have PS4 on them....golly, that's quite a lot.

If people don't think the incentive to buy QB digitally affected this, they're kinda crazy. I'm not saying it would have been #1 for the month but with the digital preorder, you received:

• Alan Wake
• Alan Wake: American Nightmare
• Windows 10 version of Quantum Break

The fact that people bought the game enough for it to be Top 10 is great!

I mean if it happened every month than sure that would be more impressive.

Dark Souls 3 released for PS4/ Xbox one. Ratchet and clank PS4/ sold at reduced price. MLB16 PS4/ PS3

Quantum Break full price/ xbox one only shown in the NPD no PC numbers.

The reality is 7th place is good because you can download this game from xbox live and it was probably the best way to do it to receive the PC version code.

That same logic works for any major game released today. A points objection to bring up in 2016.

Any idea how many units that might be? Say what you will about the game itself, but I hope it sold enough to breathe life into Star Fox for another game in the near future.

Sunbros prevail

That ZhugeEx guy said that "consoles are dead, mobile gaming is the future" and that's why none of them told their hardware sales.

These consoles seemed to have been heavily frontloaded, stuff like Disney closed, Lionhead closed.

Microsoft needs some hits to start keeping PC's and windows relevant or there gonna disappear like a magic trick, this is your bread and butter windows needs to be at the forefront of consumers or sales are going to dwindle.

We need Hardware sales numbers if there low you gotta tell us this is ridiculous gamers deserve to know what the numbers are.

I'm not going to mobile and im getting sick of PC but I also don't like a lot of the broken games on consoles. There's console gamers like me that are confused right now and all the hiding isn't helping.

Nah that's not the point. The point was collection value, not the actual game itself. Though in my opinion Star Fox Guard is a better game than Star Fox Zero. :p

Congrats to Dark Souls 3 (still loving the game but taking a side now due to UC4) And Ratchet & Clank making it to the top 10 spot. As for Quantum Break, I still enjoy myself with the game, the story was alight and other then that, it's still get's a 7/10 for me.

I'm getting Star Fox: Zero for my daughters birthday this month and she'll love Star Fox.

Holy shit GTA V is still there.

Quantum Flop.

It was April dude. No one buys consoles right before E3. Especially with Neo being the worst kept secret in the industry.

Fair point man. I just hope everythings going okay and this is another bright generation.

Ratchet and MLB in the top 3. The only multiplats that sold more on Xbone were COD and Minecraft lulz. Looks like xbots didn't buy Quantum Break. No wonder M$ rarely makes anything outside of HaloGearsForza. You guys hyped this shit up for years and don't support it. You just wanted some ammo to throw at "cows" and you didn't even get that with those average review scores.

It was #1 in the UK. Also I bet 50% of sales for Quantum Break were digital.

so Ratchet and Clank is better in score AND sales then Quantum Break?

Amazing!