Despite slower sales in the month of March for software and hardware, the PlayStation 4 managed to return to the top hardware spot beating out the Nintendo 3DS from February and the Xbox One.

March 2015, according to the NPD as reported by VentureBeat, was a lower month for new game releases as well as hardware sales. Tentpole releases such as Battlefield: Hardline and the PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne were at the top of the software charts with a combined total of $963.7 million in sales. Compared to March 2014, this is six percent less than the $1.02 billion figure from the last month of Q1. The largest offset to the numbers was the 21 percent decrease in console sales over last year’s $393.4 million. March 2015 saw a reduced $311.1 million this year.

Despite the reduction in console sales, both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and even the Wii U saw an increase in sales for March. NPD analyst Liam Callahan said, “This is the seventeenth month of sales for the Xbox One and PS4, whose combined cumulative hardware sales are over 50 percent higher than the combined seventeen-month cumulative sales totals for the Xbox 360 and PS3.”

This eight-generation of consoles has been decidedly in Sony’s favor in terms of sales up to this point. The PlayStation 4 has beaten the Xbox One in almost every month and shows no sign of slowing down. In February, it lost top hardware spot to Nintendo’s 3DS XL system but still remained above the Xbox One as the Inquisitr reported.

In terms of software, the PlayStation platform saw two exclusive titles break the Top 10 list. The full list is below. The platforms are listed in order of highest reported sales figures from brick and mortar retailers.

Battlefield: Hardline – Xbox One | PS4 | 360 | PS3 | PC Bloodborne – PS4 Grand Theft Auto V – Xbox One | PS4 | 360 | PS3 Mario Party 10 – Wii U (290,000 copies sold both physical and digital according to Nintendo) Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – PS4 | Xbox One | 360 | PS3 | PC MLB 15: The Show – PS4 | PS3 Minecraft – 360 | PS3 | Xbox One | PS4 NBA 2K15 – PS4 | Xbox One | 360 | PS3 | PC Borderlands: The Handsome Collection – PS4 | Xbox One Final Fantasy: Type 0 HD – PS4 | Xbox One

The NPD group is the main information source for software and hardware sales for the video game industry. While they do not report on digital sales, they track physical sales and hardware sales across the video game industry.

[Image Source | GamesPress]