Praise The Sun: Dark Souls 3 Rules April NPD

April’s NPD Data reveals a couple of things.  The first is that the Souls series has come a long way, and that people really, really like it.  So much that it ruled April’s NPD software sales figures.  However, the overall trend for the industry was downward to the tune of 15%.  The second is that hardware sales are declining significantly from year ago periods.

Hardware dropped 21 percent compared to April of last year and the lion’s share of that drop is attributable to a drop in console sales.  That’s not to say that the sky is falling.  The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are still selling much better than they were at this point in the life-cycles of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The strength of the PlayStation 4 is starting to show in software sales figures.  Two of the top three titles were PlayStation exclusives with Ratchet & Clank and MLB 16: The Show both jumping into the winner’s circle for April.  Quantum Break saw it’s debut at number seven on the chart, despite Microsoft claiming that it was the best selling new exclusive IP.  In a down month, that might be kind of telling has to what type of low bar this game had to hurdle to get that title.

The rest of software top ten can be found below:

NPD Software Sales April 2016

1. Dark Souls III – (PS4, Xbox One)

2. Ratchet & Clank – (PS4)

3. MLB 16: The Show – (PS4, PS3)

4. Tom Clancy’s The Division – (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

5. GTA V – (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

6. Minecraft – (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3)

7. Quantum Break – (Xbox One)

8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 – (Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

9. NBA 2K16 – (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3)

10. Star Fox Zero (Wii U)