PlayStation has done it again with another chart topping release in the US, this time with their newest release, Stellar Blade according to Circana. Not only that, they also had the 2nd best seller of the year and still hold the best seller on the year.
Interestingly enough Stellar Blade was the only new release to chart for the month as April was a rather slow month for new releases. Stellar Blade also became the 16th highest selling game of the year so far in the US.
As mentioned above Helldivers 2 continued to shine as it lands the 2nd spot and is still the best selling game of the year, despite sales dropping 70% from March. It will be interesting to see how long Helldivers 2 can stay at the top of the charts on the year.
In addition to Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2, MLB The Show 24 landed in the 6th spot meaning PlayStation owns 3 of the top 6 selling games in April. Despite hardware sales dropping for PlayStation (more on that later) their software is king these days.
Not to be completely outdone by PlayStation, Xbox owned the 3rd through 5th best selling games in Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Sea Of Thieves and Fallout 4. Both Sea Of Thieves and Fallout 4 received large surges in popularity for different reasons.
Sea Of Thieves in April launched onto PlayStation consoles, giving it a significant boost from 55th the previous month up to 4th, and third on PlayStation. Sea Of Thieves was the oldest of the 4 games Xbox announced as coming to PlayStation but also the biggest and it shows. How this result affects Xbox's decision to put more games onto PlayStation moving forward has yet to be seen, though it's likely encouraging for those making these decisions.
Fallout 4 on the other hand received it's giant boost from the Fallout tv show, jumping from 87th to 4th. Fallout 76 received a similar boost jumping from 159th all the way into the top 10 at the 8th position.
Elsewhere on the chart, Grounded, which also saw a release onto PlayStation in April landed the 12th spot on the charts. In fact, 11 of the top 20 games were either Xbox (6) or PlayStation (5) owned with Rise Of The Ronin, Minecraft and Spider-Man 2 all charting as well.
Hardware Struggling
Hardware overall saw a significant drop off, dropping 43% year over year. All 3 consoles dropped a minimum of 26% with the Nintendo Switch dropping 69%. It should be noted that the Switch is on its last legs as the Switch 2 is expected soon so these drops should be expected.
The PlayStation 5 led the month in both dollar sales and units sold, which is par for the course these days. The Switch sold the second most units while the Xbox Series X/S was second for dollar sales. Will the recent announcement of Call Of Duty launching into game pass change this much? Time will tell.
