US chart: Diablo 3 pips Max Payne 3 to May crown
3DS was the only system to show year-on-year growth.
UPDATE: A few more numbers. NPD's Anita Frazier has confirmed to Eurogamer that Dragon's Dogma sold 92,000 copies in the US during May, while Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter Tweeted that Max Payne 3 sold less than 50 per cent of what LA Noire managed in its first month last year - putting its total somewhere below 450,000.
Capcom's target of 1.5 million sales for Dragon's Dogma now seems a little optimistic. Its Japanese sales to date total 419,000.
ORIGINAL STORY: Blizzard action RPG Diablo 3 was the best selling game at US retail during the month of May, even without taking into account digital sales, according to the latest set of NPD data.
Max Payne 3 debuted in second place, followed by Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Prototype 2 and NBA 2K12.
Other new entries in the top 10 included Rebellion-developed shooter Sniper Elite V2 at seven and Capcom fantasy role-player Dragon's Dogma at nine.
Here's the chart in full:
- Diablo 3 - NEW
- Max Payne 3 - NEW
- Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - NEW
- Prototype 2
- NBA 2K12
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Sniper Elite V2 - NEW
- Battlefield 3
- Dragon's Dogma - NEW
- Just Dance 3
"To dig deeper into the new physical retail software performance this month, new launches generated 31 per cent more dollars this May than they did last May, largely due to the success of Diablo 3," commented NPD analyst Anita Frazier.
"This May, new SKU launches across console, portable and pc game software generated 188 per cent more unit sales per SKU than they did last May. So while there were fewer new item introductions this May, they collectively generated more unit and dollar sales."
Xbox 360 was the biggest selling system for the 15th month in a row, shifting 160,000 units - that's a 45 per cent share of the entire home console market.
Sony and Nintendo are yet to release any figures, though NPD did reveal that the 3DS was the only system to see a year-on-year sales increase, with numbers up 17 per cent on May 2011. A little bit of maths puts its monthly total at around 113,000.
We'll update as and when more figures trickle in.