As he does every month, Circana executive director Mat Piscatella has reported the sales charts for the top-selling video games in the United States for the past month, and for April 2026, it was Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and Pragmata sailing high above the rest. Neither, however, are close to supplanting the best-selling games of 2026 in the US so far.
Before getting into the notable inclusions on the charts, this month's release is a significant one because Circana has adapted its tracking method and now offers a more complete picture of what is and isn't actually a top-selling game. Publishers like Nintendo refusing to share its digital numbers and only sharing sales numbers for physical sales have always muddied the waters.
While Nintendo hasn't started sharing its digital numbers, Circana has adjusted its tracking and will now report charts with two important distinctions, which are: Digital Point of Sale Actuals and Digital Sales Projections. In an interview with Kotaku, Piscatella clarified why Circana shifted to its new method, saying, "The market has evolved quite a bit since the Digital Leader Panel (the group of digital data sharing participating publishers) first began in the early 2010s."
"The new methodology will allow us to capture not only the success of a game like Windrose (which would have not been captured in prior reporting) but will also allow for more accurate relative performance reporting on titles from non-participating traditional publishers like Nintendo," Piscatella said. "The advantage is that the charts will now much more accurately reflect the relative sales performance of video games in the market. The drawback is, as is the case with any projection, some range of error will naturally exist. Of course, we'd prefer all publishers to participate in digital sales sharing for the most accurate reporting."
In a post on BlueSky, Piscatella added that the reality is charts like what he reports each month using all actual point-of-sale data "is never going to happen, either publicly or privately." This new balance of actual point of sale data and projected sales is therefore the best compromise, unless something shifts and companies start sharing all actual sales data.
"Is it perfect? No. No projection methodology is," Piscatella told Kotaku. "And of course, the goal will be to continue to refine and improve over time...the reality is that the new charts will do a far better job of more accurately reflecting the market."
With that all said, getting back to the sales charts, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream sits at the top with its physical sales data and digital sales projections combined, while Pragmata, which does include digital point of sale actuals, came in second place for the month of April 2026.
Crimson Desert continues its strong run in third place based on physical sales and projected digital sales, while MLB The Show 26 stays in the top five at fourth place, and the aforementioned early access pirate game, Windrose, coming in at fifth place.
Saros, the newest PlayStation Studios' single-player game, you know, the kind that Sony won't be putting on PC anymore, was able to squeeze into the top ten at ninth place. The Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 collection also had a strong month, thanks to the release of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie at the top of the month.
Between Tomodachi Life and Pragmata, Tomodachi Life was the one to crack the chart for the top ten best selling games of 2026 so far, though it only did so in ninth place. Last year's major extraction shooter hit, ARC Raiders, sits above it in eighth place, while Pokémon Pokopia, the game that Nintendo has acknowledged is a system seller, currently sits in fourth place for best-selling games of the year so far.
The best-selling game of the year, however, continues to be Resident Evil Requiem, which is officially joined by Crimson Desert in second place thanks to Circana's new tracking method.
Moving on to hardware, the Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling console for April 2026, and while the PlayStation 5 came in second place, it was still a solid month for the console as Piscatella reports it is officially "2% ahead of PlayStation 4 on a time-aligned basis." The Switch 2, however, is outpacing its predecessor on the same time-aligned basis by 11%.
With this new method in place, it'll be interesting to see how many more Nintendo published titles make the top of the charts every month, and if anything will be able to supplant Resident Evil Requiem before the end of the year. Or, at least until Grand Theft Auto VI arrives.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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