The NPD Group released its latest monthly sales report for April 2022, revealing the month’s best-selling games and hardware, as well as shedding light on the company’s overall health.
Starting with games, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was the best-selling game of April 2022 and is now the number 2 best-selling game of 2022 to date (Elden Ring is number 1). In addition, The Skywalker Saga was the best-selling game of the month on Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and Steam.
The Nintendo angle is particularly noteworthy, as The Skywalker Saga is the first game not developed by Nintendo and has been the best-selling game on a Nintendo platform since March 2021, when Capcom’s Monster Hunter: Rise topped the charts.
The Skywalker Saga also broke franchise sales records, reaching the highest dollar sales in the first month for any Lego title in history. After only a month of sales, The Skywalker Saga is already in the top six best-selling Lego games of all time, although the other five have not been announced.
Warner Bros. Games, which published The Skywalker Saga, announced that the game sold 3.2 million copies worldwide across all platforms in its first two weeks to set a new franchise sales record.
The Skywalker Saga was developed by TT Games together with Lucasfilm Games. The game was delayed several times before finally launching in early April. These delays have reportedly caused “extensive problems” for developers at TT Games. Some developers reported that they “broke down outside of work hours because of the workload and some of the stress they had.”
The second best-selling game of April 2022 in the US was Elden Ring, which originally launched in February 2022 and remains the best-selling game of this year. Note that it has now surpassed sales of the best-selling game of 2021 in the US, Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Transitioning to mobile games, spending slowed due to the easing of the pandemic and a lack of incentive payments compared to this time last year, the NPD said. While spending on mobile games in the US generally declined, usage of the highest-earning games such as Candy Crush Saga, Roblox, and Coin Master grew year over year.
On the hardware side, spending rose 16% to $343 million thanks to an improved offering of PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. The Switch was the best-selling console in the US so far in April and 2022, with Xbox Series X|S in second place for unit sales for April 2022 and the year.
Note that the Switch surpassed the PS4’s lifetime sales in the US in April 2022 and is now the fourth best-selling console in US history, behind only PS2, Xbox 360 and the Wii. Globally, however, it’s a different story, as the Switch has already sold more units than the Wii worldwide.
In hardware, games and accessories, total video game spending in the US for April 2022 was $4.3 billion, an increase of 8% year-over-year. However, year-to-date, total spending has fallen 8% to $18.3 billion.
Shifting to accessories, total spending fell 10% to $151 million in April 2022, with the black PS4 DualShock 4 being April’s best-selling accessory overall. The Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, meanwhile, is the best-selling accessory of 2022.
April 2022 Top 10 games in general
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Elden Ring
- MLB The Show 22^
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land*
- Nintendo Switch Sports*
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Mario Kart 8*
- Gran Turismo 7
- Pokemon Legends: Arceus*
*Digital sales not included
^Xbox digital sales not included
12 months ending April 2022 Top 10 games
- Elden Ring
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Madden NFL 22
- Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl*
- Battlefield 2042
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Far Cry 6
- FIFA 22
- Resident Evil Village
- Pokemon Legends: Arceus*
*Digital sales not included
Year-To-Date 2022 Top 10 Games
- Elden Ring
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Pokemon Legends: Arceus*
- Horizon Forbidden West
- MLB The Show 22^
- Gran Turismo 7
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land*
- Madden NFL 22
- Mario Kart 8*
*Digital sales not included
^Xbox digital sales not included
Top Nintendo Games of April 2022
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land*
- Nintendo Switch Sports*
- Mario Kart 8*
- Pokemon Legends: Arceus*
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
- Mario Party Superstars*
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
- MLB The Show 22*
*Digital sales not included
Top PlayStation games of April 2022
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- MLB The Show 22
- Elden Ring
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Gran Turismo 7
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- WWE 2K22*
- FIFA 22
- Madden NFL 22
*Digital sales not included
April 2022’s Top Xbox Games
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Elden Ring
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Forza Horizon 5
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Halo Infinite
- god drop
- FIFA 22
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
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