Digital video game sales rise 5% to $6.2B in April: Report

Digital video game sales hit $6.2 billion in April as revenue from PC titles rose while mobile and console transactions cooled off from the previous month, according to a report from SuperData Research.

Still, all three platforms saw gains from the same period last year, with combined digital sales growing 5 percent from April 2015.

Game downloads to consoles like Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation once again put up the biggest year-over-year growth. Sales of $576 million were up 23 percent from April 2015, while audience numbers rose 15 percent. Revenue was down nearly $100 million from March, though.

PC games accounted for the biggest share of April's haul, bringing in more than $2.9 billion for the month and rising 6 percent from March.

An estimated $45 million in sales for Bandai Namco's "Dark Souls III" made the role-playing sequel the month's best-selling PC title. SuperData CEO Joost van Dreunen said the game benefited from being optimized for PC play.

"This is the first 'Dark Souls' title to perform better on PC than console, demonstrating that both Bandai Namco and From Software put the lessons learned from 'Dark Souls I' and 'II' to good use," he said.

Mobile revenue dipped nearly 6 percent from the previous month to about $2.6 billion in April.

Supercell's "Clash Royale" ceded the top spot to Japanese puzzle game "Monster Strike" but the Finnish mobile game developer continues to dominate the top five. "Clash Royale," released in January, and Supercell's legacy "Clash of Clans" title both took in more than $100 million last month, good for second and third place.

"So far, Supercell's new title has managed to add to the company's bottom line rather than cannibalize the success of its existing titles," van Dreunen said.

Social gaming continued to slip last month, falling 10 percent year over year, as casual gamers move from PCs to mobile devices, according to SuperData.

Here are the top-selling digital games for April, as measured by SuperData Research:

1. "Call of Duty: Black Ops III"

2. "FIFA 16"

3. "Tom Clancy's The Division"

4. "Grand Theft Auto V"

5. "Dark Souls III"

1. "Dark Souls III"

2. "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive"

3. "StarCraft II"

4. "Minecraft"

5."Fallout 4"

1. "League of Legends"

2. "CrossFire"

3. "Dungeon Fighter Online"

4. "World of Tanks"

5. "Dota 2"

1. "World of Warcraft"

2. "Lineage I"

3. "Star Wars: The Old Republic"

4. "TERA: Online"

5. "Blade & Soul"

1. "Monster Strike"

2. "Clash Royale"

3. "Clash of Clans"

4. "Game of War: Fire Age"

5. "Puzzle & Dragons"

1. "DoubleDown Casino"

2. "Slotomania"

3. "Candy Crush Saga"

4. "FarmVille 2"

5. "Jackpot Party Casino — Slots"