The NPD Group has released their full North American sales data for April 2021, and while business was down slightly year-on-year, it was still a good month. Players spent $4.6 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in April, down 2 percent compared to the same time period last year. Of course, it’s important to note that last April was the biggest ever, as the beginning of COVID-19 lockdowns drove people to gaming and huge releases like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Animal Crossing: New Horizons dropped. So yeah, the industry almost doing as well as last year isn’t a bad thing. On the hardware front, Nintendo Switch was once again the top-selling system.
As for software, it was an up-and-down month for Sony – the newly-multiplatform MLB The Show 21 came in at #1, but the PS5-exclusive Returnal only squeaked in at #8 (granted, it was only on sale for 2 days in April). Other fresh additions to the list include New Pokemon Snap at #3 and NieR Replicant Ver.1.22474487139… at #5. Meanwhile, Outriders stayed surprisingly strong at #4 and the inventive It Takes Two scrambled into the top 10 after missing the charts in March.
Here are April’s top 20 games according to NPD:
- MLB The Show 21
- Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War
- New Pokemon Snap
- Outriders
- NieR Replicant Ver.1.22474487139…
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Monster Hunter Rise
- Returnal
- It Takes Two
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
- Minecraft
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Pokemon Sword & Shield
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
And here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2021 thus far:
- Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
- MLB the Show 21
- Monster Hunter Rise
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Outriders
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Minecraft
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
An interesting month – I wonder what kind of legs both MLB the Show 21 and Returnal will end up having for Sony. What games did you pick up in April?
About the author: Professional writer of trivial things. Nathan has been covering games, entertainment, and online culture for over a decade with bylines at IGN, GameSpy, Cracked, Uproxx, ComicBook, and more. Joined Wccftech gaming team in 2017, and has written hundreds of game reviews and thousands of news stories since.
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