US sales return to double-digit growth

Market up 20%; Xbox 360, PSP and PS3 see sales rise; Mortal Kombat, Portal 2 top charts in April

News by Matt Martin Contributor

Published on May 13, 2011

After a slow start to the year, the U.S. video game market saw double-digit growth in April, up 20 per cent on last year, recording $961.2 million of sales.

Breaking down the physical product sector, NPD data reported a 26 per cent increase in software sales to $503.2 million, with hardware up 12 per cent to $279.9 million.

Accessories also saw an increase to $147.6 million, or 20 per cent.

The Xbox 360 was the top selling console during the month with a total of 297,000 units sold, up 60 per cent year-on-year. Microsoft said that Kinect Sports sales have passed 3 million units, and Dance Central 2.5 million units worldwide.

Sony's PSP and PlayStation 3 were the only other two consoles to see growth compared to last April, with PS3 sales up 13 per cent despite downtime to the PlayStation Network, and software sales for the system up 40 per cent.

NPD noted that the Easter holidays were in April this year, not March, but sales were still up regardless.

"The Easter timing shift could explain about $60 million of the growth, but even accounting for that shift, sales of new physical product realised a notable increase versus last year," said analyst Anita Frazier.

For software, Warner's Mortal Kombat was the highest seller, shifting 900,000 units and topping the ten best-sellers list, ahead of Valve's Portal 2 and LucasArts' LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars.

The full top ten follows: