April sales of new video games rose 3% to $595.7 million, driven by Warner Bros.’s Mortal Kombat X. Software sales, less new releases, spiked 13% to $256.7 million, according to data released by The NPD Group. For new physical console software, eighth-generation consoles sales grew 200% in revenue, which offset declines from seventh-generation consoles of 62%, and portable declines of 32%. Overall, console software increased by 20%, leading to overall video game software growth of 13%.

Hardware sales dipped 4% to $183.9 million. Accessories dropped 3% to $155.1 million.

"April hardware sales decreased due to the 55% decline in sales of seventh-generation console hardware. Eighth-generation console hardware sales were stable, and portable hardware increased by 36%," The NPD Group’s Liam Callahan said in a statement.

On a unit basis, hardware sales grew by 12%. Declines in hardware dollar sales were due to a decrease in average price of 4%, due to a drop in console hardware pricing.

After 18 months on the market for Xbox One and PS4, NPD said cumulative hardware sales are more than 50% higher than the combined sales of Xbox 360 and PS3 at the same point in their lifecycles.

Xbox One console sales in the U.S. increased 63% in April compared to the same period in 2014. Xbox Live comparisons showed the number of active global users (Xbox One and Xbox 360) grew 24%.

Commenting on the report, Mike Nichols, VP, Xbox marketing at Microsoft, said: "We are grateful to our fans for their passion and support and are looking forward to sharing more on the best game lineup in Xbox history at E3,"