What you need to know
- Analytics firm Circana has published details on the best-selling games and hardware of April 2024 in the U.S.
- PlayStation 5 exclusive Stellar Blade was the best-selling game of the month, while six Xbox games were in the top 20 best-sellers, including Fallout 4 and Sea of Thieves.
- Hardware spending is down 43% overall, with PlayStation 5 being the best-selling console for the month.
Six of the 20 best-selling games of April 2024 in the U.S. were Xbox titles.
That's according to Circana executive director and advisor Mat Piscatella, who shared the latest sales data for the U.S. gaming industry on Wednedsay. For the month of April, Shift Up's PlayStation 5 exclusive Stellar Blade topped the charts, followed quickly by February's top-seller Helldivers 2 and last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Other games helping to round out the top 20 include Grounded, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Minecraft, and Sea of Thieves, all titles that (like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3) fall under the Xbox first-party portfolio. Outside of the surge of Xbox games, Dragon's Dogma 2, which was the best-seller for March 2024, also stayed in the top 20.
Overall, the gaming industry saw a 3% drop year-over-year, with increases in mobile spending unable to offset a colossal 43% drop in gaming hardware. The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console of the month, with Xbox Series consoles and Nintendo Switch second place in dollar sales and units sold, respectively. All three were down a minimum of 26% year-over-year, per Piscatella, with Nintendo Switch hardware down 69%.
You can see the best-selling games of the month (and the year so far) below. Bear in mind that like always, some companies don't share digital data, including Nintendo, while others like Larian Studios don't share any data at all.
April 2024 Circana: Here are the top 20 best-selling games in the U.S.
1. Stellar Blade
2. Helldivers 2
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
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. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
17. Tekken 8
18. Mario Kart 8*
19. Elden Ring
20. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
*Denotes no digital sales data
**Denotes no digital sales data on Xbox or Nintendo Switch
April 2024 Circana: Here are the best-selling games of the year so far
1. Helldivers 2
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
3. Dragon's Dogma 2
4. MLB The Show 24**
5. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
6. Tekken 8
7. Madden NFL 24
8. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
9. Hogwarts Legacy
10. Persona 3 Reload
11. EA Sports FC 24
12. NBA 2K24*
13. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
14. Rise of the Ronin
15. Skull and Bones
16. Stellar Blade
17. Minecraft
18. Sea of Thieves
19. Elden Ring
20. Super Mario Bros. Wonder*
Analysis: Microsoft's multiplatform approach pays off for live service games
It's clear here that Microsoft's approach to porting some Xbox games to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch hardware is paying off. Specifically, choosing to move over co-op focused or live-service games like Grounded and Sea of Thieves is paying off extremely well, with both games charting nicely in April.
Single-player games (especially smaller ones) might not really make sense to port moving forward after Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush didn't really make an impact, but I absolutely see Microsoft bringing over more multiplayer games in the future.
It's also excellent to see the Fallout resurgence continuing, which is in no small part thanks to the absolutely excellent Fallout TV series that launched on Prime Video back in April. This strong performance raises serious questions about the need for studio closures under the Bethesda Softworks wing of Xbox, but at the very least, Bethesda Game Studios is on fire in the best possible way right now.
