March 2026 was a great month for video game spending, and April didn’t disappoint either. According to new data by Circana, U.S. video game spending totaled USD 4.3 billion in April 2026, a growth of 3% when compared to a year ago, with title Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream being the biggest winner of the month. Total spending on game content went up 2% in April to USD 3.8 billion. For the year so far, content spending is up 3% to USD 16.7 billion.
The best-selling game of April (the ninth best-selling game of 2026), Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is estimated to have delivered over USD 41 million in sales across both physical and digital in the U.S. Thanks in part to Nintendo’s new Switch 2 exclusive, consumer spending on new physical software grew to USD 96 million in April, a 44% increase when compared to a year ago. According to Nintendo’s financial results, Tomodachi Life sold 3.8 million units in the first two weeks of its release.
Coming hot in second place was Capcom’s brand-new Pragmata, which was the best-selling game on PS5, the second best-selling game on PC via aggregated storefronts, and the third best-selling game on Xbox for April. Overall, it placed in the top 15 for the month on Switch 2. Crimson Desert continued to rake in sales and finished third, while the early access launch of Windrose saw the game finish in fifth place.
Likely buoyed by the success of ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,’ the classic Super Mario Galaxy games on Switch jumped several positions to finish in seventh place, and Starfield’s launch on PS5 alongside new content drops saw it finish in eighth place. Housemarque’s new release, Saros, took ninth place, although it’s worth noting that it launched on the last day of April.
Unsurprisingly, Circana’s data has Resident Evil Requiem still holding onto the position of the best-selling game in the U.S. for 2026. There have been a few changes to the top 10 list, as Tomodachi Life has entered the picture, NBA 2K26 continues to be a strong performer, and Arc Raiders has fallen to eighth place.
Mat Piscatella, Senior Director at Circana, revealed that hardware spending increased by 34% when compared to a year ago, to USD 261 million. Nintendo’s Switch 2 console was once again the best-selling hardware platform across both units and dollars for April 2026, while the PS5 came in second. Spending on Nintendo hardware ended in April 2026 at its highest point since July 2025, and spending finished the month at USD 3.8 billion, a growth of 2% when compared to a year ago.
Here are the projected top 10 best-selling games from the period of April 5th to May 2nd, 2026, data courtesy of Circana.
Besides, readers can find here the top 10 best-selling games in the U.S. for the whole 2026 so far.
