Research firm Circana recently unveiled its findings for the best-selling and most-played games in the US for the month of April. Among the games leading the charts are Sony's Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2, with several Xbox titles crowding the top list.
Sony's Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2 are April's Best-Selling Games with Xbox Titles Trailing Behind
Stellar Blade Tops April Charts Amid Mixed US Gaming Market Trends
SHIFT UP's PlayStation-exclusive, Stellar Blade, claimed the No.1 spot on Circana's US charts, becoming the best-selling game in the US for the month of April and overall 16th best-selling game of 2024 to date. Stellar Blade launched on April 26 and quickly became the best-selling premium game of the month, garnering critical acclaim along the way. Mat Piscatella, executive director Circana, noted that Stellar Blade was the only new release to feature among April's top 20 best-selling premium video games.
The rest of the April charts saw Helldivers 2, another PlayStation title, holding steady at second place, from there, Xbox titles round up the top list, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 rising from fourth to third. While another title from Xbox, Sea of Thieves, made a drastic leap, moving up from No.55 to No.4 following its launch on PlayStation. Additionally, Fallout 4 went up from No.87 to No.5, thanks in part to the popularity of Amazon's Fallout TV series, with Fallout 76 and New Vegas also settling themselves among the most-played games in the US last month.
PS5 is the Best-Selling Console in April 2024
Despite the new releases and shifts in rankings, overall US game spending in April 2024 saw a slight decline. Consumer spending decreased by 3% year-over-year to $4.1 billion. However, spending on content, including physical and digital games, add-on content, and subscriptions, increased by 2% to $3.7 billion. There were significant drops in hardware and accessories sales, with hardware sales plummeting by 43% to $208 million and accessories falling by 4% to $152 million.
The PS5 remained the best-selling hardware platform in April, followed by the Nintendo Switch and Xbox. Despite this, Mat Piscatella pointed out that PS5 sales are ahead of the PS4's trajectory, although 2023 might have been the peak year for PS5 sales. In contrast, "Xbox Series is trailing Xbox One by 13%," he added, "and remains slightly behind Xbox 360."
Interestingly, however, Sony's recent statistics report revealed that half of PlayStation players have yet to upgrade from a PS4 to a PS5. During a segment meeting on Wednesday, Sony executives emphasized the growth of the PS5 user base and the high engagement levels of PS5 players compared to the previous generation.
"As you can see, the PlayStation 5 user base has continued to grow significantly, driving to half of our monthly active consoles," Nishino said. "While the PlayStation 4 is still an important part of our business, our PlayStation 5 players are even more engaged than in our previous generation, and we expect these trends to continue."
Sony said it aims to strengthen its live service capabilities and extend its games to new devices. CEO Hermen Hulst said PlayStation would continue to grow its most popular franchises with a strategy that includes releasing single-player games on console first, while live service games will target both console and PC.
As for future hardware, reports indicated that Sony has instructed developers to prepare their games for the new hardware, speculated to be the PS5 Pro. Microsoft, on the other hand, is working on a next-generation gaming console, which it says is the largest technical leap in console generations.
PlayStation Announces State of Play May 2024
Looking ahead, Sony has announced it will host its State of Play event on May 30, 2024, streaming at 3:00 pm PT / 6:00 pm ET / 11:00 pm BST on PlayStation's YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok channels.
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Stellar Blade and PS5 topped the US sales chart in April
6 of the 20 best-selling games of April 2024 in the US were Xbox titles, per Circana
US game spending experienced a 3% decrease in April | US Monthly Charts
