April NPD: Nintendo dominates, industry sales up 20%

The NPD group has released US video game sales data for April, a month which left Nintendo laughing and others playing the fool. Industry sales are up by 20% over last month, generating a grand total of $838.6 million. Software sales dropped by 1% to $389.8 million, though a 54% increase in hardware revenue to $338.4 million lessened the impact.

GameDaily Biz reports that Nintendo's hardware took the top two spots (for real this time), with the Wii showing an increase in sales for the first time in several months. The system's shortage situation has enjoyed some improvement, though unfortunately the same can't be said for Sony. Despite the PSP trumping Microsoft's elite offering, it seems the crippling "shortage" from March has become even more debilitating for the PlayStation 3.

• Nintendo DS: 471K (10.9 million total)
  

• Nintendo Wii: 360K (2.5 million total)

• Sony PlayStation 2: 194K (38.2 million total)

• Sony PSP: 183K (7.4 million total)

• Microsoft Xbox 360: 174K (5.4 million total)

• Nintendo Game Boy Advance: 84K (35.7 million total)
  

• Sony PlayStation 3: 82K (1.3 million total)

• Nintendo Gamecube: 13K (11.7 million total)
  

• Microsoft Xbox: N/A

Nintendo also reigned supreme in the software top ten, cashing in on that innate human desire to catch 'em all:

• Pokémon Diamond (DS): 1.045M

• Pokémon Pearl (DS): 712K

• Super Paper Mario (Wii): 352K

• Wii Play w/remote (Wii): 249K

• Guitar Hero 2 w/guitar (Xbox 360): 197K

• Guitar Hero 2 w/guitar (PS2): 142K

• Spider-Man 3 (Xbox 360): 117K

• Spider-Man 3 (PS2): 105K

• God of War II (PS2): 101K

• MLB '07: The Show (PS2): 79K

Check back later to see how Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo respond to the NPD results.