Video game sales have not been healthy for the past several months but the release of two blockbuster games caused a huge jump in sales last month. Industry Gamers reports that according to data from the NPD Group, total game sales came in at $961.2 million for the month of April in the US, a rise of 20 percent from April 2010. Software sales were $503.2 million for the month, up 26 percent and hardware sales were up 12 percent to $279.9 million. Sales of accessories were also up 20 percent to $147.6 million.
Industry sales showed gains even with the fact that Sony's Playstation Network was shut down on April 20 which could have affected sales of PS3 and PSP games. The Easter weekend also might have been a factor for higher sales (Easter happened in March in 2010) but the NPD Group believes that even with that taken into account, "sales of new physical product realized a notable increase versus last year."
In terms of game sales, the revamp of the Mortal Kombat fighting franchise for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles was the number one selling game in April with the NPD Group saying that total sales came in at about 900,000 copies. Valve's puzzle shooter Portal 2 came in second place for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 but NPD Group's sales figures don't take into account downloadable sales. Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars came in third place followed by Call of Duty Black Ops in fourth place.
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