14 DAY TRIAL // The video game industry has managed to have a pretty good month in the United States during April, with the tracking firm NPD Group saying that the increase in overall sales versus the same period of 2010 amounts to 20 percent.
The industry has managed to sell goods valued at 961.2 million dollars during the month, coming from 802.4 million during 2010, the first time it has posted solid growth since the fall of last year.
Software sales on all tracked platforms have amounted to 533.6 million dollars, which is an increase of 24 percent over April 2010 and the rise was even bigger when PC sales are excluded from the picture.
The best-sold title of the month was, surprisingly, the new Mortal Kombat fighting game from NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Interactive, which apparently managed to sell close to 900,000 copies on the PlayStation 3 and on the Xbox 360.
Second place went to Portal 2, the action and puzzle game from Valve, which many expected to see in the top position.
The NPD Group does not track sales that are made through the Steam digital distribution service, which is also run by Valve, meaning that Portal 2 could still have sold more copies overall than Mortal Kombat.
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars from LucasArts, which is available on the Xbox 360, the PS3, the Wii, the PC and the 3DS, came in at number three in the chart.
Call of Duty: Black Ops, from Treyarch and Activision Blizzard, has managed to again perform well, even though it was launched back in the fall of 2010, as gamers were ready to get another map pack for it.
The rest of the top ten is made up of: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters; Crysis 2; Just Dance 2; Michael Jackson The Experience; Pokemon White Version and NBA 2K11.