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May NPD: PS4 pulls ahead while The Witcher hunts its way to #1

It didn't take long for PS4 to re-establish control in the ongoing console wars, overtaking the Xbox One on the strength of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Meanwhile, Nintendo has one thing to celebrate and that's a better-than-expected performance from Splatoon.

Ozzie Mejia

June 11, 2015 5:20 PM

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The April victory for Microsoft and Xbox One was short-lived, as Sony and the PlayStation 4 have once again emerged on top of the console hardware sales charts. It's something of a Pyrrhic victory, though, since hardware sales were down 18 percent overall from last year. The NPD Group's Liam Callahan argues that there weren't quite so many system sellers in the last month, compared to May 2014. Look for software sales to potentially rise next month with the long-awaited arrival of Batman: Arkham Knight.

In fact, let's go into software right now. The big winner for the month, unsurprisingly, is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, overtaking last month's leader, Mortal Kombat X. A slower month of new releases means that Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft trail at #3 and #4, respsectively. But if anyone is about to celebrate, it's Nintendo, which sees Splatoon come in at the #5 slot and perform far better than anyone expected. The usual suspects of NBA, FIFA, and MLB round out the top five.

May Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC; new releases in bold)

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4, XBO, PC)
• Mortal Kombat X (PS4, XBO)
• Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, XBO, PC, 360, PS3, PC)
• Minecraft (360, PS3, XBO, PS4)
• Splatoon (NWU)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4, 360, XBO, PS3, PC)
• NBA 2K15 (360, PS4, XBO, PS3, PC)
• FIFA 15 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3, Wii, 3DS, PSV)
• MLB 15: The Show (PS4, PS3)
• Super Smash Bros. (3DS, NWU)

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?