NPD April 2015: Xbox One Comes Out On Top

Each month industry experts are given a report that details all of the consoles and software numbers sold from physical retail brick-and-mortar stores within the United States, which are then reported on by sites privileged with that sort of information. They are published from the NPD group, with this month’s numbers reporting for NPD April 2015.

Top 10 most sold physical software titles in the US, according to NPD April 2015 numbers (bracket order=most-to-least sold version):

1. Mortal Kombat X (PS4, Xbox One)
2. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, PC, 360, PS3)
3. Battlefield: Hardline (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
4. MLB 15: The Show (PS4, PS3)
5. Minecraft (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4)
6. NBA 2K15 (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
7. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
8. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
9. Super Smash Bros. (3DS, Wii U)
10. Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (PS4, Xbox One)

Xbox marketing lead Aaron Greenberg confirmed on Twitter that the Xbox One was the #1 selling console in April for the United States; a great deal more impressive than the 187 total that sold in Japan last week. No doubt it came as bittersweet with the fact that the Xbox division suffered a 24% decrease in revenue last quarter due to its price cut earlier this year, but it still means that the Xbox One knocked the PS4 off of its perch at the top for the first time in a while.

Speaking more about hardware company PR, Microsoft told GamesBeat that the Xbox One saw a 63% increase in US sales this April compared to last April, meaning it sold roughly 187,000 units based off of the numbers that were provided for April 2014. Concerning total software units sold, Sony platforms lead the month in the United States. Nintendo, meanwhile, continues to take a page out of the “doubleplusgood” PR book by saying that they saw a 65% year-over-year increase in Nintendo 3DS sales within the first 4 months this year, while the Wii U is up 15% compared to 2014.

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Concerning the games that sold the most according to NPD this month, it’s no surprise that Mortal Kombat X came out on top. Outside of handheld JRPG’s and Grand Theft Auto V on PC (where digital sales don’t count towards NPD), there was no real competition in the month. No, what shocked me most is that MLB 15: The Show, a niche sports franchise on just one company’s platforms, came out at #4, above perpetual mainstay Minecraft. Furthermore, despite Dark Souls II being released on the PS4 and Xbox One for the first time this past month, it barely sold more than Super Smash Bros. on platforms it released on last year.

Finally, what’s absolutely flabbergasting is that Bloodborne dropped off the Top 10 list altogether, coming off of a month where it came in at #2. Just as T.S. Eliot said, though; April is the cruelest month. It certainly is for hardware and software sales, as the hardcore action-RPG title had weaker legs than that of a baseball simulation title (albeit across two platforms physically and three digitally).

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