April 2010 NPD Number Crunch: Splinter Cell Conviction tops otherwise slow month

Remember how good the gaming industry had it back in March?  Well we hope you enjoyed it because April ended up being a gloomy downpour, by the NPD Group's reckoning.  Their monthly sales report for April confirmed a whopping 26 percent year-on-year drop in revenue, with both console hardware and software sales taking double-digit dives.  It should be noted that April 2009 was marked by a year-on-year decline as well, highlighting how weak the fourth calendar month has been for the gaming industry.

April 2010 US Games Industry Summary 
Total Sales - $766.2 million USD (-26%) 
Hardware Sales - $249.3 million USD (-37%) 
Software Sales - $398.5 million USD (-22%) 
Accessory Sales - $118.4 million USD (-9%)

None of the console platforms managed to displace each other in the hardware rankings chart for April, though their unit sales sure as heck plummeted across the board.  In many cases their sales dropped by nearly half the amount sold in March.

None of the titles in the software top ten managed to achieve million unit sales, unlike the figures posted back in March.  This means all the banner titles of March saw their sales dip dramatically in April, like God of War III and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.  Final Fantasy XIII fell off the chart completely.

Despite the grievances aired by longtime series fans over Ubisoft's design desicions to make ol' Sam Fisher more like a panther than a grandma, Spinter Cell: Conviction still managed to achieve sales mastery across its launch territories.  In addition to taking on all comers during launch week in the United Kingdom, NDP confirms the title also proved to be the top-selling game in North America for the month of April.

Perhaps Conviction's competition was not as strong as it could have been, however, given that the only other new title to grace the software top ten was the PS3 version of Super Street Fighter IV.  Capcom's much-touted  Monster Hunter Tri (released in collaboration with Nintendo) didn't even manage to break into the top ten.  Note that NPD is no longer providing sales figures for titles outside of the top five.

Will April showers bring May flowers, as they used to say?  Well May is already marked with the long-awaited releases of several new titles, including Alan Wake, Lost Planet 2, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Skate 3, Split/Second, and of course Super Mario Galaxy 2.  Phew!