April NPD: Splinter Cell leads, DS still on top, game revenue down

May 14, 2010

The NPD Group has revealed the latest industry results for April 2010, with the latest espionage adventure of Sam Fisher topping the software charts and the DS still reigning supreme in the hardware category, but overall, the game revenue was down by a whooping 26%. According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, the video game sales dropped to US$ 766.2 million overall compared to US$ 1.03 billion in April 2009.

“In April ’09, consumers attributed $55 million of industry sales to Easter as a purchase occasion, which would account for about 21 percent of the decline from last year since Easter purchasing happened in March this year.”

The analyst also blamed the poor sales of portable handhelds, but also noted the steady performance of Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 .

“Declines in portable sales compared to April ’09 accounted for 61 percent of the total industry decrease. But despite the revenue drop, the PS3 and the Xbox 360 both enjoyed a unit sales increase over last April while all other systems declined, with the PS3 accounted for 84 percent of the total unit sales increase.”

Here’s the complete breakdown of the April 2010 NPD result:

April 2010 software chart:

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft, 360), 486,100
Pokemon SoulSilver (Game Freak/Nintendo, NDS), 242,900
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo/Nintendo, Wii), 200,300
Pokemon HeartGold (Game Freak/Nintendo, NDS), 192,600
God of War III (Sony Santa Monica/SCEA, PS3), 180,300
Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo/Nintendo, Wii)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE/Electronic Arts, 360) 166,000 (Note: Microsoft-released figure)
Wii Fit Plus w/ Balance Board (Nintendo, Wii)
Just Dance (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft, Wii)
Super Street Fighter IV (Capom, Dimps/Capcom, PS3)