Nintendo continues to dominate the retail charts with another strong showing in April for their Switch console. According to The NPD Group, Nintendo added another 280,000 Switch consoles to its tally last month, and the newly-launched Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold more than 459,000 copies (in just two days) to take the top spot on the list of best-selling games. The company’s success also seems to be great for the industry as a whole, as the industry generated $636 million in sales in April 2017, a 10% increase over the year before.
The other big news in April is that Persona 5 pushed the franchise and gave the RPG the #2 spot on the best-seller list, just below Mario Kart 8.
“Persona 5 experienced the strongest debut month for any title in Persona franchise history, with packaged dollar sales five times that of the previous best-selling debut, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4,” NPD Analyst Mat Piscatella told GamesIndustry.biz.
Additional new releases were thin on the ground in last month’s Top 20, but Lego Undercover‘s re-release on the PC and current-generation consoles helped it secure a spot (#13). And as expected, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild continued to sell well, landing in the #3 position for the month. But the big retail winners in April all came from the backlist, including Grand Theft Auto V (#6), Overwatch (#9), Call of Duty: Black Ops II (#10), and Minecraft (#20).
The NPD Group’s complete list of best-selling games for April 2017 can be found after the break.
Best-Selling Games in April 2017
1. Mario Kart 8**
2. Persona 5**
3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild**
4. MLB The Show 17
5. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Mass Effect: Andromeda
8. NBA 2K17
9. Overwatch**
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
11. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
12. Horizon: Zero Dawn
13. Lego City Undercover
14. Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMix
15. Lego Worlds
16. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
17. Battlefield 1
18. For Honor
19. Nier: Automata
20. Minecraft** Digital Sales Not Included
