Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2 Dominate and Sea of Thieves Returns to the Top 5 in April

The former NPD Group (now named “Circana”) has released its full North American sales data for April, and it was a bit of a down month for the industry. Players spent $4.1 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in April, down 3 percent year-on-year. While software spending was up slightly, hardware numbers were down a whopping 43 percent year-on-year. As has been the case for a several month straight, PS5 was #1 in terms of unit and dollar sales, Switch was #2 in terms of unit sales, and Xbox Series X/S was #2 in terms of dollar sales.

Sony had a lot to be happy about on the software front, as Stellar Blade debuted at #1 and Helldivers 2 held steady at #2 in its third month on the market. A number of previously-Xbox-exclusive games that launched on PlayStation in April also hopped up the charts – Sea of Thieves went from #55 in March to #4 in April and Grounded went from #167 to #12. Meanwhile, the effect of the Fallout TV series was also felt, boosting Fallout 4 to #5 and Fallout 76 up to #8.

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Here are April’s top 20 premium games according to Circana:

1 - Stellar Blade

2 - Helldivers 2

3 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

4 - Sea of Thieves

5 - Fallout 4

6 - MLB The Show 24

7 - Dragon's Dogma 2

8 - Fallout 76

9 - Hogwarts Legacy

10 - EA Sports FC 24

11 - Rise of the Ronin

12 - Grounded

13 - Minecraft

14 - Madden NFL 24

15 - Princess Peach: Showtime!

16 - Rainbow Six Siege

17 - Tekken 8

18 - Mario Kart 8

19 - Elden Ring

20 - Spider-Man 2

And here are the top games of 2024 to date:

1 - Helldivers 2

2 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

3 - Dragon's Dogma 2

4 - MLB The Show 24

5 - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

6 - Tekken 8

7 - Madden NFL 24

8 - Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

9 - Hogwarts Legacy

10 - Persona 3 Reload

What are your thoughts on the April NPD/Circana charts? Any big surprises or things you’re happy to see?