14 DAY TRIAL // Software releases drove up the impressive results that the videogames industry posted in April 2008, with Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart Wii leading the charge. Now, software releases are probably to blame for the slump that the NPD Group reported for April 2009, as the research group says that the overall value of sales went down by 17% to reach 1.03 billion dollars.
The sales of software saw an even bigger decline, going down by 23% to reach 510.74 million dollars. The biggest videogame of April was Wii Fit, sold with the Balance Board, which managed to move around 471,000 units, more than the number of Wii consoles sold in the same period. Nintendo takes second place with Pokemon Platinum, its definitive release for the Nintendo DS, which sold 433,000 units.
The Japanese publisher also holds the third spot by way of Mario Kart Wii, which is now one year old and still manages to move 210,000 units. Nintendo's domination continues with Wii Play that appears to be losing its popularity quite quickly, reaching only 170,000 in sales for the month of April.
The first non Nintendo game in the chart is The Godfather II from Electronic Arts, which sold 155,000 copies for the Xbox 360 and 91,000 for the PlayStation 3. Resident Evil 5, despite being one month older, was close behind, with 122,000 units reaching gamers. New Super Mario Bros. from Nintendo is next, followed by Mario Kart DS at number eight. Ninth place goes to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, with 110,000 copies sold.
Anita Frazier, NPD analyst, commented on the numbers, “The number of new releases this month is fairly comparable to what was introduced last April, but Grand Theft Auto IV (on both PS3 and the 360) sold nearly 1 million more units last April than the entire top 10 list did this year.”
May will probably be a better month for videogames and let's hope that one of the games released manages to unset Wii Fit from the top spot in the chart.