April has been a pretty quiet month on the Nintendo front, and that seems to have reflected in the sales across Europe. In the latest GSD data for the previous month, there was a 15% drop in console sales in the month of April compared to March — excluding the UK and Germany.
However, this drop in sales didn’t stop Nintendo from being number one, as the Switch is still the biggest selling console for the seventh month in a row, closely followed by the PlayStation 5, which reported its best month ever. Accessories also suffered a drop of 19%, and online store credit slipped 24% down in sales.
In terms of game sales, the biggest new release is TT Games’ LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which has also become the fifth biggest-selling game of 2022 in Europe. Nintendo Switch Sports, despite launching at the end of the month, charted in fourth — and if digital sales were included, it may have been even higher.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is still doing pretty well, slipping from fifth to sixth, but now outselling the previous Switch title – Kirby Star Allies — across the continent. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe hopped back into the top ten as well, perhaps as more people picked up the game for the season pass?
However, overall game sales dropped by 24%, with a 29% decline in digital sales (among 30 countries) and an 18% drop in physical media (among 16 countries).
The full European top 20 chart for April is just below. As always, anything with an asterisk means that digital sales figures aren’t included.
May looks like an even quieter month for the Switch, so perhaps the steady momentum of Nintendo Switch Sports will keep the console near the top? This is all the calm before the storm, though, as June and July look jam-packed. Stay tuned.