Beancounters at NPD have released their April numbers and it seems both Sony and God of War are living dream. It turns out that Barlog and Co's new Kratos do has become the best ever launch of a PlayStation exclusive in terms of income.
Kratos has had a month to remember, with the rejuvenated God of War being the best selling game in April 2018. Not that it didn't show outside of the financial world, with truckloads of God of War themed memes being made daily about the Dad of War.
The result goes hand in hand with Sony's performance, whose PlayStation 4 broke the record for April console sales, previously held by Nintendo's Wii. The stats cover the period from 1995 to 2018, although it's fair to assume it's an all-time record.
Interestingly, Barlog and Co's masterpiece made a dent in hardware sales as well. Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB Limited Edition God of War ended up as the best selling piece of hardware income-wise. When it comes to number of units though, Nintendo's Switch 32GB Neon Red/Blue JoyCon apparently took the proverbial cake.
Having said that, God of War didn't really have that much competition from triple A titles. Other than Sea of Thieves and Far Cry 5, most of 2018 so far has been quiet, save for some indie releases. Don't confuse that for an attempt to minimise God of War's success, because it's more like a compliment for clever timing.
Once you disregard raw income and just count sold copies, the most successful PlayStation exclusive is still The Last of Us. It also holds the record of most successive first spots on UK's physical sales chart, although God of War will have beaten it two more weeks in first place.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
The list of top ten selling games in April 2018 looks like this:
- God of War
- Far Cry 5
- MLB 18: The Show
- Labo Variety Kit
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
- Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Call of Duty: World War II
- Super Mario Odyssey
- NBA 2K18
