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Superhero video game 'Injustice' wins April sales fight

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A screen shot from the video game 'Injustice: Gods Among Us'.(Photo: Warner Bros. Interactive)

It took the power of the Justice League -- and its slew of villains -- to help a fighting game once again become king of video game sales mountain.

Warner Bros. Interactive's brawler Injustice: Gods Among Us is the first fighting game since 2011's Mortal Kombat[1] reboot to earn the top spot in The NPD Group's monthly sales chart. The game lets players pit characters both good and evil -- including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Lex Luthor, Bane and Solomon Grundy -- against each other. (See the Injustice review here[2].)

Developer NetherRealm Studios delivered the 2011 game and 2008's crossover Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

But Injustice was not enough to boost slagging video game sales. Overall, consumers spend $495.2 million on video games and systems in April, a decline of 25% from April 2012. System sales accounted for $109.5 million, a 42% drop.

Sales of video games generated $254.3 million, down 17%, while accessories accounted for $131.4 million, a 19% decline. "Despite overall declines, April title launches in 2013 fared better than games that launched in April 2012, up 118% in unit sales and 130% in dollar sales," said NPD analyst Liam Callahan. "This increase was driven by games like Injustice: Gods Among Us, Dead Island: Riptide, and Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins."

The complete Top 10 (publisher in parentheses):

1. Injustice: Gods Among Us (Warner Bros. Interactive)

2. Dead Island: Riptide (Deep Silver)

3. Bioshock Infinite (Take 2 Interactive)

4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Activision Blizzard)

5. Defiance (Trion Worlds)

6. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (Nintendo)

7. NBA 2K13 (Take 2 Interactive)

8. Skylanders Giants (Activision Blizzard)

9. Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins (Nintendo)

10. MLB 13: The Show (Sony)

Sales of game systems continued to accelerate, suggesting that consumers may now be waiting for new video game systems to launch. "When looking at month-to-month hardware trends with weeks normalized for the five-week March period compared, to the four-week April period, we have seen declines hover around 30% over the past few years, while March 2013 to April 2013 declines were slightly higher at 38%," Callahan said.

Sony has announced that PlayStation 4[3] is in the works and expected in stores for the holiday season. Microsoft is expected to reveal plans for an Xbox 360 successor next week[4].

Another possible factor on sales: Easter fell in March rather than April. "Easter typically accounts for a 10% boost in the month in which it occurs," Callahan said. "Since Easter occurred in April last year vs. in March this year, it's difficult to provide a comparison this year to last."

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter expected slightly better software sales due to the strong-looking new releases and "solid catalog sales from a slew of high-profile releases last month (such as Take-Two's BioShock Infinite, out March 26). "The industry hasn't seen a month of true growth since November 2011, and we expect sustained positive growth to remain elusive until 2014," he says.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider[5]

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