April 2019 NPD: Mortal Kombat 11 KOs Days Gone for No. 1 spot

Two gory games went head-to-head in April, and Mortal Kombat 11 came out on top. According to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group, the latest game in NetherRealm’s fighting franchise was the No. 1 seller across PC and consoles in April. Overall, games-related spending in the U.S. reached $842 million last month. It’s a 1% increase from April 2018 (when consumers spent about $838 million).

Despite lukewarm reviews for the PlayStation 4 exclusive Days Gone, Sony Bend’s long-awaited zombie apocalypse shooter came in at No. 2. Another Sony exclusive, MLB 19: The Show, rounded out the top three.

“Year-to-date spending across tracked video game hardware, software, accessories & game cards is down 2% when compared to 2018, to $4 billion,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella in a statement. “Declines in hardware spending have offset growth in sales of accessories & game cards.”

Piscatella noted that Mortal Kombat 11’s explosive debut also makes it the No. 2 best-seller in 2019 so far (just behind Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts III). It’s also the best-selling game on the platforms it debuted on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

“Mortal Kombat 11 represents the first time a third-party published Nintendo Switch game was the platform’s top seller in a month since Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle topped the Nintendo Switch chart in September 2017,” said Piscatella.

And though it’s only been out for a month, Days Gone is already Sony Bend’s best-selling game in terms of lifetime revenues.

Software

Here are the top 20 best-selling games from April.

NPD tracks physical sales at retailers, but it also gets digital data directly from publishers. But not every company participates. For example, Nintendo doesn’t share its first-party sales, and Activision Blizzard does not provide its Battle.net sales.

These charts are sorted by dollar sales — not number of units sold.

1. Mortal Kombat 11
2. Days Gone
3. MLB 19: The Show
4. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2**
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice**
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4**
9. NBA 2K19
10. Yoshi’s Crafted World*
11. Red Dead Redemption II
12. Mario Kart 8*
13. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
14. Minecraft***
15. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
16. Final Fantasy X2/X-2 HD Remaster
17. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
18. Jump Force
19. Battlefield V*
20. Borderlands

*Digital sales not included
**PC digital sales not included
***Xbox One and PlayStation 4 digital sales are included for Minecraft

Total software sales for April came out to $427 million, a 15% increase from last year. In addition to the two big releases of Mortal Kombat 11 and Days Gone, live-service games like Ubisoft’s The Division 2 and Black Ops 4 continued to perform well last month.

And From Software’s tough as hell action game Sekiro, which had a big debut last month, is still managing to hang in the top 10.

“Year-to-date dollar sales of tracked console, portable and PC video game software totaled $1.9 billion, 4% higher when compared to a year ago,” Piscatella added.

Hardware and accessories

Consumer spending on hardware was at $160 million, a 29% decrease compared to a year ago. Except for the Nintendo Switch, all other hardware platforms experienced a decline in sales.

“Nintendo Switch was the best-selling hardware platform of both April as well as year-to-date across both unit and dollar sales,” said Piscatella. “The Nintendo Switch 32GB with neon red and blue joy cons is the best-selling individual hardware item of 2019.”

In the accessories and game cards category, spending went up 5% to $256 million. The best-selling accessory for the month was actually a toy: the figures found in the Amiibo Super Smash Bros Series 1 Character Packs.

Other software chart highlights

Best-selling games of 2019 so far

1. Kingdom Hearts III
2. Mortal Kombat 11
3. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2**
4. Anthem**
5. Resident Evil 2 remake
6. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
7. Red Dead Redemption II
8. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice**
9. Jump Force
10. MLB 19: The Show

PlayStation 4’s best-selling games of April 2019

1. Mortal Kombat 11
2. Days Gone
3. MLB 19: The Show
4. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
5. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
7. NBA 2K19
8. Red Dead Redemption II
9. Grand Theft Auto V
10. Marvel’s Spider-Man

Xbox One’s best-selling games of April 2019

1. Mortal Kombat 11
2. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
4. Grand Theft Auto V
5. Red Deead Redemption II
6. NBA 2K19
7. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
8. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
9. Forza Horizon 4
10. Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

Nintendo Switch’s best-selling games of April 2019

1. Mortal Kombat 11
2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
3. Yoshi’s Crafted World*
4. Mario Kart 8
5. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
7. Super Mario Party*
8. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
9. Super Mario Odyssey
10. Labo Toy-Con 04 VR Kit

The April results show that game spending is still in a healthy place as we head into the summer months, which are traditionally slower in terms of big-budget releases. Expect Mortal Kombat 11 to stay in the top 10 for a while, especially if NetherRealm follows through with its years-long plan to update the game.