Construe the numbers any which way you’d like: it doesn’t change the fact that April was a slow month for the video game industry. On a year-over-year basis, sales took a considerable hit, down from 1.03 billion to 766.3 million dollars — a 26 percent drop off.

Despite a somber showing across the board, Nintendo still emerged victorious on both sides of the spectrum, hardware and software. The Wii shifted 227,200 units while the DS, showing no signs of slowing down, sold 440,800 units throughout the duration of April. PSP sales are somewhat worrying — only a meager 65,500 units exchanged hands during the same timeframe, marking an all-time low for the platform in North America.

As far as software is concerned, Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell Conviction topped the charts with 486,100 units sold. Nothing to scoff at, but one has to wonder if it would have had a better showing if Ubi had opted for a multi-platform release on consoles.

Look for the full breakdown of figures below, courtesy of NPD.

Hardware Units
PlayStation 3 180.8K
PSP 65.5K
Xbox 360 185.4K
Wii 277.2K
Nintendo DS 440.8K

Top 10 VG Console/Portable SKU’s April 2010
TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: CONVICTION* 360 UBISOFT Apr-10 486.1K 1
POKEMON SOULSILVER VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-10 242.9K 2
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 200.3K 3
POKEMON HEARTGOLD VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-10 192.6K 4
GOD OF WAR III* PS3 SONY Mar-10 180.3K 5
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 6
BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Mar-10 7
WII FIT PLUS W/ BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 8
JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT Nov-09 9
SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV PS3 CAPCOM USA Apr-10 10

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