Days Gone tops monthly charts, but Nintendo shows strength in-depth

The monthly physical charts for April very much mirror this week’s charts, with Days Gone being the best-selling title of the month after only five days on shelves, followed by Mortal Kombat 11.

As we mentioned in the weekly charts, PS4-exclusive Days Gone was the biggest launch of the year, though by Sony’s own high standards it looks less impressive as it shifted 38.8 per cent less physical copies at launch than Horizon Zero Dawn, also a new IP. Some of this will be down to the digital shift but the lukewarm reception certainly is accountable too. As a result of Days Gone’s launch, the PS4 market share went up in April, with Sony’s console representing 49 per cent of all physical games copies shifted in the UK in April.

Meanwhile, five days from launch, Mortal Kombat 11 debuted at No.2 in the monthly physical charts. The title had a 43.6 per cent drop in launch sales from 2015’s Mortal Kombat X but with Warner Bros Interactive president David Haddad recently announcing that Mortal Kombat 11 put in the best launch of any Mortal Kombat title to date, it’s more likely attributable to digital shift than fading interest.

Last month’s No.1, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, had to settle for No.3 in April, with sales decreasing 67 per cent month-on-month.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, having debuted at No.2 in March, charted at No.8 in April, with sales down 62 per cent. Its physical sales figures are slightly below where Bloodborne was by its second month, though most of this can be attributed to the digital shift.

World War Z, which debuted at the top of its launch week’s charts, entered the monthly charts at No.9, while Maximum Games’ Snooker 19 debuted at No.28.

It’s worth noting that the Switch has taken over the Xbox One in terms of both unit sales and value in April, for the first time since January, with Nintendo also being the best-selling publisher of the month, replacing Ubisoft at the top. It’s likely due to the continued success of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Yoshi’s Crafted Word and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe, all in the Top Ten in April.

Here’s the Top Ten for the period between March 31st and April 27th 2019 (data courtesy of GfK/Ukie):

Rank Title Publisher
1 Days Gone – NEW Sony
2 Mortal Kombat 11 – NEW Warner Bros
3 Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 Ubisoft
4 FIFA 19 EA
5 Red Dead Redemption 2 Rockstar
6 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Nintendo
7 Yoshi’s Crafted World Nintendo
8 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Activision
9 World War Z – NEW Mad Dog
10 New Super Mario Bros U. Deluxe Nintendo

About Marie Dealessandri

Marie Dealessandri is MCV’s former senior staff writer. After testing the waters of the film industry in France and being a radio host and reporter in Canada, she settled for the games industry in London in 2015. She can be found (very) occasionally tweeting @mariedeal, usually on a loop about Baldur’s Gate, Hollow Knight and the Dead Cells soundtrack.

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