The former NPD Group (which is now named “Circana” for some reason) has released its full North American sales data for March, which was a somewhat mixed bag of a month. Players spent $4.6 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in March, a 5 percent year-on-year decrease. Hardware sales were up 10 percent year-on-year, driven by the red-hot PS5, but software and content sales were down 7 percent. Perhaps the biggest news is that PS5 has now surpassed PS4 sales on a “time-aligned basis.” That means Sony has sold more PS5s in the console’s first 29 months than they sold PS4s in its first 29 months. In fact, the PS5 set a Sony March hardware record, which was previously set by the PSP (yes, the PSP) which sold 620k units in March 2005.
On the software front, the Resident Evil 4 remake debuted at #1, bumping Hogwarts Legacy to #2, but, as mentioned, software sales were still down year-on-year as last March the juggernaut that was Elden Ring was tearing up the charts. Other new releases included MLB The Show 23 at #3 and WWE 2K23 at #7. Meanwhile, The Last of Us Part I rose another spot from last month to #5 on the strength of the HBO series and the game’s PC release.
Here are March’s top 20 games according to Circana:
1 - Resident Evil 4
2 - Hogwarts Legacy
3 - MLB The Show 23
4 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
5 - The Last of Us Part I
6 - FIFA 23
7 - WWE 2K23
8 - Elden Ring
9 - Madden NFL 23
10 - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
11 - Minecraft
12 - Octopath Traveler II
13 - Metroid Prime Remastered
14 - Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
15 - God of War Ragnarok
16 - Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe
17 - Dead Space
18 - NBA 2K23
19 - Sonic Frontiers
20 - Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
And here are the top games of 2023 to date:
1 - Hogwarts Legacy
2 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
3 - Resident Evil 4
4 - MLB The Show 23
5 - Dead Space
6 - Madden NFL 23
7 - FIFA 23
8 - Elden Ring
9 - The Last of Us Part I
10 - God of War Ragnarok
What are your thoughts on the March charts? Any big surprises or things you’re happy to see?
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