The former NPD Group (which is now named “Circana” for some reason) has released its full North American sales data for March, which was a somewhat mixed bag of a month. Players spent $4.6 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in March, a 5 percent year-on-year decrease. Hardware sales were up 10 percent year-on-year, driven by the red-hot PS5, but software and content sales were down 7 percent. Perhaps the biggest news is that PS5 has now surpassed PS4 sales on a “time-aligned basis.” That means Sony has sold more PS5s in the console’s first 29 months than they sold PS4s in its first 29 months. In fact, the PS5 set a Sony March hardware record, which was previously set by the PSP (yes, the PSP) which sold 620k units in March 2005.
On the software front, the Resident Evil 4 remake debuted at #1, bumping Hogwarts Legacy to #2, but, as mentioned, software sales were still down year-on-year as last March the juggernaut that was Elden Ring was tearing up the charts. Other new releases included MLB The Show 23 at #3 and WWE 2K23 at #7. Meanwhile, The Last of Us Part I rose another spot from last month to #5 on the strength of the HBO series and the game’s PC release.
Here are March’s top 20 games according to Circana:
1 – Resident Evil 4
2 – Hogwarts Legacy
3 – MLB The Show 23
4 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
5 – The Last of Us Part I
6 – FIFA 23
7 – WWE 2K23
8 – Elden Ring
9 – Madden NFL 23
10 – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
11 – Minecraft
12 – Octopath Traveler II
13 – Metroid Prime Remastered
14 – Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
15 – God of War Ragnarok
16 – Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe
17 – Dead Space
18 – NBA 2K23
19 – Sonic Frontiers
20 – Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
And here are the top games of 2023 to date:
1 – Hogwarts Legacy
2 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
3 – Resident Evil 4
4 – MLB The Show 23
5 – Dead Space
6 – Madden NFL 23
7 – FIFA 23
8 – Elden Ring
9 – The Last of Us Part I
10 – God of War Ragnarok
What are your thoughts on the March charts? Any big surprises or things you’re happy to see?
