Activision’s Awful The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct Made NPD’s Top 10

Activision’s decision to exploit/trick Walking Dead fans by dumping Terminal Reality’s The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct onto the market seems to have paid off, as the hilariously awful licensed game sold enough retail copies to break into NPD’s top 10 U.S. software sales chart for March 2013.

Exact retail sales of the craptastic The Walking Dead cash-in were not revealed as part of the report, however, we do know from its 9th place position on the chart that it sold more than 145K (based on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon‘s reported sales for March) but substantially less than 365K (which is the number of copies that the 6th place Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon sold on the 3DS). Wherever The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct fell between those two sales numbers, it is far more than the game deserved.

On a happier note, the top of NPD’s software sales chart contained some really good titles. Leading the chart as the best-selling game in the U.S. last month was BioShock Infinite, with 878K copies sold. The “weak-selling” Tomb Raider debuted in second place, followed by Gears of War: Judgement and God of War: Ascension.

Hardware sales for the month were dominated by Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which sold 261K units (a 29% year-over-year decline). Sales numbers for all other platforms were not revealed in the report, however, the 3DS was said to have realized a 9% year-over-year increase in sales. It is unclear if this increase is referring to revenue or units sold.

Total video game industry new retail sales fell 10% year-on-year to $992.5 million, led by a substantial 32% decline in hardware sales ($221.6 million). Combined sales of new retail software bucked the trend and rose 2% year-over-year to $602.4 million.

NPD‘s top 10 new retail software sales chart for March 2013 reads as follows:

1. Bioshock Infinite (360, PS3, PC) Take-Two Interactive
2. Tomb Raider 2013 (360, PS3) Square Enix Inc
3. Gears of War: Judgement (360) Microsoft
4. God of War: Ascension (PS3) Sony
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, PC, NWU) Activision Blizzard
6. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) Nintendo
7. MLB 13: The Show (PS3, PSV) Sony
8. NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, WII, NWU, PSP, PC) Take-Two Interactive
9. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (360, PS3, NWU) Activision Blizzard
10. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (360, PS3) Namco Bandai Games