Switch Best-Selling Console in the US in April, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Debuts in 1st - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 17 May 2023 / 6,309 Views
The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console in the US in April 2023 in terms of units sold, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). NPD includes the dates for the four week period of April 2 to 29.
The Nintendo Switch – OLED Model The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Edition released at the end of April and helped boost the sales of the console.
The PlayStation 5 was the second best-selling console in terms of units sold, followed by the Xbox Series X|S in third place. Unlike in March when the PlayStation 5 set a new individual PlayStation sales record, it was "not particularly close" in setting a PlayStation record in April.
In terms of dollar sales, the PlayStation 5 was number one, followed by the Nintendo Switch in second place, and the Xbox Series X|S is in third.
2023 year-to-date the PlayStation 5 is best-selling console in terms of both units sold and dollar sales, while the Nintendo Switch is in second in both rankings, and the Xbox Series X|S comes in third.
Overall spending on video games in April was down five percent year-on-year from $4.32 billion to $4.12 billion. Spending on video game content decreased six percent from $3.82 billion to $3.60 billion, while video game hardware sales jumped seven percent from $343 million to $367 million.
Overall spending on video games in 2023 year-to-date is down two percent from $18.11 billion to $17.71 billion. Spending on video game content decreased four percent from $15.79 billion to $15.11 billion, while video game hardware sales is up 18 percent from $1.55 billion to $1.82 billion.
"Consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories reached $4.1 billion, a 5% drop when compared to a year ago," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella. "A 6% decline in April spending on video game content offset 7% growth in hardware."
Piscatella added, "Video game hardware spending grew 7% when compared to YA, to $367M. This is the highest video game hardware spend for an April month since the $420M reached in April 2020. Double-digit percentage growth in both PS5 and Switch dollar sales offset declines on other platforms.
"PlayStation 5 was the best-selling hardware platform in dollar sales during April, while Switch led the market in units sold. PlayStation 5 leads the 2023 hardware market year-to-date across both units and dollars."
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor debuted at the top of the software charts (ranked by dollar sales) and is the fourth best-selling game of 2023. The game was only available in two days of tracking on the April charts.
Dead Island 2 debuted in second place and is the sixth best-selling game of 2023. PGA Tour debuted in seventh place, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection debuted in eighth, Minecraft Legends debuted in 11th, Final Fantasy I-VI Bundle debuted in 14th, and Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp debuted in 15th.
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for April 2023:
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in 2023 year-to-date:
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
