April NPD: Mortal Kombat wins for Outworld, Xbox is top console again

by JC Fletcher on May 12th 2011 6:30PM

The Mortal Kombat reboot rose up against franchise fatigue, an incapacitated PSN, and space-time-tunneling competition to claim the top spot on the NPD's April sales charts. Turns out there's a big audience out there for seeing inside some dude's body as his bones are breaking. Oh, and for accessible, fast-paced fighting games. (But mostly the X-ray bone breaks.)

According to the NPD, Mortal Kombat sold just under 900K copies. Portal 2, of course, came in at No. 2.

Likely as a result of these two games, total US spending was up 20 percent year-over year, from $802.4 million in 2010 to $961.2 million in 2011. Microsoft can also claim some responsibility for the high numbers -- it informed us that the Xbox 360 was the top-selling console last month, moving 297,000 units (a year-over-year increase of 60 percent).

Top 10 best-selling games (US) for April 2011:

Mortal Kombat -- PS3, 360 -- 1 -- Warner Bros.
Portal 2 -- 360, PS3, PC -- 2 -- Electronic Arts (Valve)
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars -- WII, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC -- 3 -- LucasArts
Call of Duty: Black Ops -- 360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC -- 4 -- Activision
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters -- 360, PS3, Wii -- 5 -- Electronic Arts
Crysis 2 -- 360, PS3, PC -- 6 -- Electronic Arts
Just Dance 2 -- Wii -- 7 -- Ubisoft
Michael Jackson The Experience -- 360, Wii, PS3, NDS, PSP -- 8 -- Ubisoft
Pokemon White Version -- NDS -- 9 -- Nintendo
NBA 2K11 -- 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP, PC -- 10 -- Take 2 Interactive

Tags: ds, mac, microsoft, mortal-kombat-2011, nintendo, npd, npd-monthly, pc, playstation, portal-2, ps3, psp, sales, sony, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (80)

Good for xbox? I want to play MK but with Kratos!

@Mustang Fanboy He's not really that great. I could never get a feel for that guy, and I always went back to Scorpion and Katana.

I must admit, though, that he has a funny death when you use Ermac's secret fatality on him.

@Mustang Fanboy

I want to play Portal 2 with Kratos!

@My Prerogative
I bet you don't even know who he is...

@A Sandwich
They should make every game with Kratos.

@Mustang Fanboy

I dunno if I would be willing to give up online play for Kratos.

@Mustang Fanboy

I agree I can't wait for them to release Cooking Kratos: Chop & Don't Stop

@Mustang Fanboy
Tetris with Kratos?

@Andrew12h

he would have killed tetrises the god of tetris in no time at all.

oh nice bait title. 9/10

@PR0F3TA
I sure LOL'd

@PR0F3TA

So stating a fact is some how baiting people huh?

Haha only a fanboy would recognise that as bait rs

@BigFat360 biggerbadderFatter
Uh, I misread him. I thought he was talking about the PSN outage link.

@BigFat360 biggerbadderFatter

Exactly...

@PR0F3TA

I know I'm totally batin' to this title later tonight ...

@BigFat360 biggerbadderFatter top console for THIS MONTHS sales is a lot different than being "top console". Leaving out the rest of the sentence is baiting. Just saying "Top console" makes it seem like the author himself is a fanboy, as there is no "top console" in the sense that one console is better than the rest in EVERY way, it's just not a fact.

@A Sandwich

There's a shocker. =P

@Kougeru

You say "potato", I say "stupid"...

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

You can watch if you want...?

@A Sandwich

That depends.

Is there cheese involved?

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

There is now.

@A Sandwich

Snap.

Count me in!

@PR0F3TA

Not sure how this is a "bait title". It's just stating that Xbox is outselling the other consoles right now. Which it is.

@Lucky48

Because Sony and Nintendo likely didn't reveal their numbers. The NPD doesn't give numbers any more, the only way to get them is by the console manufacturers making them public. MS has been making their's public recently while the other two haven't, likely because they're lower. If you want PS3/Wii numbers you should be complaining to Sony/Nintendo, not joystiq. Where have you been the last 5 months?

@Kougeru

Are you serious? The first two words of the title are "April NPD", that implies that the top console remark applies to this month's sales numbers. If you didn't get that, then you're probably only reading at a 2nd grade level.

If you read a headline that said "NFL Cheerleaders: Detroit Lions top the list" would you say that they were trying to imply that the Detroit Lions were the best team in the NFL because they didn't explicitly say "of the league' best cheerleaders this year". Of course not, because you're not an imbecile. And I don't think you're an imbecile in this case either, I think you're just looking for something to complain about because your mad that your favorite fanboy console didn't win this month.

@Vcize

*league's
*you're

@Lucky48

Major Nelson tweeted it earlier, if that helps.

@Lucky48
The 360 almost catching up to the PS2 means it's the most successful console this generation because... well... the PS2 was the most successful console of all time. I know you were trying to make a funny, but it didn't quite work out.

@A Sandwich
Excuse me?

@The patatoe

Bahahaha!

@Lucky48

"So why not wait for both companies to do so, and then post everything in 1 article?"

Were you not paying attention? Because they don't reveal their numbers, so there's nothing to wait for.

@Vcize
Well said my friend! Although I think 99% of us get it.. the people you are arguing with can't be persuaded with facts n' such.

/the 1% sure can be aggravating huh?

Hmm... I assumed Portal would win. Was a pretty good month and we're approaching a (sigh) fast and furious end of the year with massive releases on the docket.

@Truant It may very well be that Portal 2 sold more, but since Steam sales aren't tracked by NPD (which would be a rather significant portion of sales for a Valve title in particular) none of those would be counted.

@Truant
I don't think that's counting Steam sales so Portal 2 may have won. It's still good for Mortal Kombat though, it looks like they may have successfully revitalized the franchise

@Truant I imagine a lot of Portal 2 sales are from Steam, and I don't think those numbers are represented here.

Glad to see Mortal Kombat and Portal 2 in the top spots but........Lego Star Wars in 3rd? Seriously?!

@TylerDurden102680 It was released on 7 platforms and there's a huge audience for it. Why so surprised?

@TylerDurden102680
I haven't played this one specificly, but the first one (based off the crappy trilogy) is lots of fun actually.

Mortal Kombat deserves all the praise along with Portal 2. Thumbs up to Netherrealm and Valve.

@H3nnyRoc

Yeah I was shocked by just how good mk is. I actually thought mk vs dc was good (just light on content) and I guess I was so used to to playing average mk s that this one really just blew me away

why does Kratos suck so much in this game??

@noobtube. Your name says it all.

Of all the games that have appeared so far mortal is the only one i wish it was created for the P.C. too... :P

Here we go. Another 200+ comment article. Does Joystiq get paid for every comment?

@Prboi
hmmm...
1. Post news about how Xbox is beating PS3 in some way (or vice versa).
2. Watch the comments roll in.
3. Profit.
You might have something there.

@DeadInside
You forgot the "?????" bit

@TheShaper
yeah. I guess I didnt see any unknown variables. The plan made sense to me.

@DeadInside

Yeah, they're really stretching things here by announcing the top selling item in an article about sales. /sarcasm

Seriously, I just googled "joystiq NPD" and just about every NPD article they post includes the top selling console. And in case you're wondering, that's usually not the 360.

@Prboi Thanks for commenting. >.>

Got MK on day one, sold MVC3 the next day. Best fighting game I've played this entire generation.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Mortal Kombat (2011)

April NPD: Mortal Kombat wins for Outworld, Xbox is top console again

Reader Comments (80)

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:31PM Mustang Fanboy said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:15PM My Prerogative said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:37PM A Sandwich said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:49PM Mustang Fanboy said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:51PM Mustang Fanboy said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:21PM Anticrawl said

Posted: May 12th 2011 9:59PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: May 13th 2011 6:59AM Andrew12h said

Posted: May 13th 2011 9:37AM eat it said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:32PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:41PM TheShaper said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:45PM BigFat360 biggerbadderFatter said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:56PM TheShaper said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:57PM Prboi said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:19PM A Sandwich said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:22PM Kougeru said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:24PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:30PM A Sandwich said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:30PM A Sandwich said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:33PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:37PM A Sandwich said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:48PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:08PM TraceurRyuk Part III said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:19PM Vcize said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:20PM Vcize said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:53PM A Sandwich said

Posted: May 12th 2011 10:45PM Bewoulf said

Posted: May 12th 2011 11:21PM The patatoe said

Posted: May 12th 2011 11:49PM A Sandwich said

Posted: May 13th 2011 2:01AM Acosta02 said

Posted: May 13th 2011 8:19AM xreadmore said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:33PM Truant said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:47PM Vexorg said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:48PM Lerkero said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:49PM louiedog said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:33PM TylerDurden102680 said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:56PM louiedog said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:59PM TheShaper said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:36PM H3nnyRoc said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:58PM BigFat360 biggerbadderFatter said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:36PM noobtube said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:54PM Mrguy you know that guy said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:40PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:41PM Prboi said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:55PM DeadInside said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:00PM TheShaper said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:12PM DeadInside said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:25PM Vcize said

Posted: May 12th 2011 9:57PM LinkRazr said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:53PM Mrguy you know that guy said

Mortal Kombat (2011) Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a stranger in a strange land

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW