The stocks are finally here and the series continues for the PlayStation 5, which has now been going it alone for several months. Still sovereign in March ahead of the Switch (second in volume) and the Xbox Series (second in value), the Sony Interactive Entertainment console has just established the new sales record all PlayStation machines combined for a month of March, which it had already done in February. A record previously held by the PSP and its 620,000 sales recorded in March 2005.
The PS5 is currently pulling the market upwards (this is the second biggest month of March for console sales after March 2021) and above all has just passed an important milestone: in the United States, PS5 sales have now caught up with those of the PS4 at the same stage (29 months) which places it around 14 million consoles installed on American soil. Catching up and doing better than the PS4 is the manufacturer’s avowed objective, but nothing is done: the PS5 is still a few million behind its big sister on a global scale. How much exactly, we will know on April 28 in the wake of the results of the Japanese group.
The safe bet Resident Evil 4, the surprise Octopath Traveler II
Expected as the box of the month of March, Resident Evil 4 has not failed and seizes the lead in sales ahead of Hogwarts Legacy, at least in the month of March. A sign of a substantial start, Capcom’s game has also been on the podium of the best-selling games since the beginning of the year. In the absence of transparency on the part of Circana, however, it is impossible to measure the start of this opus compared to the other Resident Evil released in recent years.
The other biggest release of the month is for MLB The Show 23, traditional annual success of San Diego Studio on its lands which offers itself a place on the podium by doing in particular better than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This new home run is not the only cause for celebration for PlayStation studios, as The Last of Us Part I has progressed further compared to January and February to enter the top 5… and therefore regain the position it occupied the month of its release in September 2022. We say thank you HBO, but also to the launch of the PC port which, despite its technical setbacks, had to weigh in the balance.
A few US VG market takes:
– PS5 driving console market
– Big new games selling very well, just not enough of them
– Subscription spend growth is slowing
– Market is stabilizing, expect mostly YoY single-digit % changes going forward
– Commitment returning to pre-pandemic levels— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) April 19, 2023
In the rest of the ranking, unlike Wild Hearts and Like a Dragon: Ishin which quickly left the top 20, Octopath Traveler II creates a surprise by losing only 2 places. Visibly benefiting from flattering word of mouth, the RPG achieved a very good second month and stabilized in 12th place, just ahead of Metroid Prime Remastered, whose boxed success joined that already seen in the dematerialized rankings of the eShop. Speaking of Nintendo, if Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe holds its own, Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon was too niche a project to break into the top 20, with PlatinumGames’ game not being helped by the lack of digital sales. that Nintendo still does not communicate.
Finally, sales of accessories increased by 1% and reached $239 million in March, led by sales of controllers and in particular the black DualSense Edge.
- Also Read | The results of the previous month