Nintendo Switch Tops PS4 Lifetime Sales, Lego Star Wars Bumps Off Elden Ring in April

The NPD Group has released its full sales data for April 2022, and it was a milestone month for Nintendo, as the Switch has now surpassed the lifetime sales of the PS4 in North America. The PS2, Wii, and Xbox 360 are now the only consoles that have moved more units.

US NPD HW – Lifetime unit sales of Nintendo Switch have now surpassed those of PlayStation 4, making it the 4th highest unit selling console in U.S. history, and the 6th highest unit selling video game hardware platform overall. In console it trails only PS2, Xbox 360 and Wii.

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) May 13, 2022

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It was, overall, a solid month for the industry with more steady supply of new consoles (specifically the Switch and Xbox Series X/S) leading to a 16 percent jump in hardware sales year-on-year. Overall, players spent $4.3 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in in April, an 8 percent year-on-year decrease. The Switch was the #1 console, followed by the Xbox Series X/S. The still-supply-constrained PS5 was in last place in terms of unit sales, but #1 in terms of dollar wars, due to the console’s high price.

Turning to software, after two months at #1, Elden Ring was finally bumped down a spot by Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The only other new game to chart was Nintendo Switch Sports at #5. In somewhat surprising news, Kirby and the Forgotten Land held stronger at #4 than Gran Turismo 7, which slipped pretty hard from #2 down to #9.

Here are April’s top 20 games according to NPD:

1. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
2. Elden Ring
3. MLB The Show 22
4. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
5. Nintendo Switch Sports
6. Call of Duty: Vanguard
7. Horizon Forbidden West
8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
9. Gran Turismo 7
10. Pokemon Legends: Arceus
11. Minecraft
12. FIFA 22
13. Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War
14. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
15. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
16. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
17. WWE 2K22
18. Mario Party Superstars
19. Madden NFL 22
20. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

And here are the top-10 best-selling games of 2022 thus far:

1. Elden Ring
2. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
3. Pokemon Legends: Arceus
4. Horizon Forbidden West
5. MLB The Show 22
6. Gran Turismo 7
7. Call of Duty: Vanguard
8. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
9. Madden NFL 22
10. Mario Kart 8

A tumultuous year for hardware sales so far. It will be interesting how things ultimately shake out as hardware shortages continue to be an issue.