Nintendo Switch and Software Pushed Game Industry in April

NPD’s numbers for the gaming industry are out for April 2017 and as you might guess the Nintendo Switch and games like Mario Kart 8 have dominated the market. NPD says that consumers in the US spent $636 million on video games and related hardware in April for a gain of 10% compared to the previous years when April was good for $577 million.

Hardware sales totaled $195 million, up 37% compared to the previous year. Console software sales are estimated at $304 million for a 6% gain with PC software sales of $11 million, a massive decline of 57% compared to 2016. VentrueBeat notes that the gain seen on the Nintendo Switch indicates that the poorly received Wii U was one of the big reasons that game spending has been down the last two years.

The top games overall for the month include Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at the top, not counting digital sales of the games. Persona 5 was in second spot, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in third spot, MLB 17: The Show is in fourth and Ghost Recon: Wildlands is in fifth spot.

The Switch has been a big boost for Nintendo and third party developers with the NPD report said, “Seven different publishers produced the top 10 April titles for the Nintendo Switch,” said Piscatella. “Nintendo published three of the top 10, while Warner Bros. Interactive, Sega, Konami, Nicalis, Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard all published titles for the Nintendo Switch that appear in Aprils top 10.”