NPD Analysis

Charts: April NPD 2010

Benny Wilkinson — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:56:17 +0000

It’s that time again. The hardware chart isn’t too impressive and PS2 figures weren’t included in the data:

DS – 440,800 (down on March 2010, down on April 2009)
Wii – 277,000 (down on March 2010, down on April 2009)
360 – 185,000 (down on March 2010, up on April 2009)
PS3 – 180,000 (down on March 2010, up on April 2009
PSP – 65,500 (down on March 2010, down on April 2009)

April wasn’t so big on releases compared to March, primarily being just the new Splinter Cell on 360, Monster Hunter on Wii and Super Street Fighter IV on the HD consoles, which didn’t do much for sales. For some reason NPD only included sales figures for the top five this time around instead of top ten:

Splinter Cell: Conviction (Ubisoft, 360) – 486,100
Pokémon Soul Silver (Nintendo, DS) – 242,900
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 200,300
Pokémon Heart Gold (Nintendo, DS) – 192,600
God of War III (Sony, PS3) – 180,300
Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, Wii)
Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts, 360)
Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii)
Just Dance (Ubisoft, Wii)
Super Street Fighter IV (Capcom, PS3)

Of the new releases, Monster Hunter on Wii and Super Street Fight IV on 360 both failed to place.

Sources:

Hardware – VG247

Software – VG247

Filed under: Charts Tagged: 2010, April, chart, hardware, NPD, software

Charts: March NPD 2010

Benny Wilkinson — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:50:27 +0000

The US sales figures are out for March. The hardware chart is fairly traditional this month, with the PS3 likely being held back by supply issues while Pokémon kept the DS strong:

DS – 700,800
Wii – 557,500
360 – 338,400
PS3 – 313,900
PSP – 119,900
PS2 – 118,300

That didn’t stop PS3 gamers buying God of War III and Final Fantasy XIII though:

God of War III (Sony, PS3) – 1,100,000
Pokémon Soul Silver (Nintendo, DS) – 1,020,00
Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix, PS3) – 828,200
Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts, 360) – 825,500
Pokémon Heart Gold (Nintendo, DS) – 761,200
Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix, 360) – 493,900
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 457,400
Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts, PS3) – 451,200
Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii) – 429,600
MLB10: The Show (Sony, PS3) – 349,200

Source: VG247

Filed under: Charts Tagged: 2010, chart, hardware, March, NPD, software

Charts: February NPD 2010

Benny Wilkinson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:03:35 +0000

The 360 had a rare victory over the Wii (it’s done it twice before, the PS3 once), but the DS still topped the chart. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenburg has already said it’s the best Feb in the console’s history, while Sony have apparently been plagued with shortages in the US:

DS – 613,000
360 – 422,000
Wii – 397,000
PS3 – 360,100
PSP – 133,400
PS2: 102,900

Obviously that translates well in the software charts, with Bioshock 2 on the 360 topping the chart and Modern Warfare 2 still doing well three months after launch.

BioShock 2 (Xbox 360): 562,900
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii): 555,600
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360): 314,300
Just Dance (Wii): 275,400
Wii Sports Resort (Wii): 272,500
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3): 252,800
Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360): 246,500
Dante’s Inferno: Divine Edition (PS3): 242,500
Dante’s Inferno (Xbox 360): 224,700
Heavy Rain (PS3): 219,300

Source: Eurogamer

Filed under: Charts Tagged: 2010, chart, February, hardware, NPD, software

Charts: January NPD

Benny Wilkinson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:11:50 +0000

The NPD Group have released the video game sales figures for January 2010, reporting sales are down $170 million, to $1.17 billion.

Microsoft had some good momentum from Mass Effect 2, keeping the 360 ahead of PS3 this month but still plenty behind the Wii:

Wii – 465.8K
DS – 422.2K
Xbox 360 – 332.8K
PS3 – 276.9K
PSP – 100.1K
PS2 – 41.6K

Nintendo topped the software charts too, with Mass Effect 2 just grabbing the top spot. Five Wii games, four 360, one PS3. No Bayonetta, but Army of Two and Darksiders both entered the chart on 360:

New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, Wii) – 656,700
Mass Effect 2 (Electronics Arts, 360) – 572,100
Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii) – 555,700
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activison, 360) – 326,700
Mario Kart (Nintendo, Wii) – 310,900
Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, Wii) – 297,600
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activison, PS3) – 259,000
Army of Two: The 50th Day (Electronic Arts, 360) – 246,500
Just Dance (Ubisoft, Wii) – 191,900
Darksiders (THQ, 360) - 171,200

Sources:

Hardware – VG247

Software – VG247

Sales drop – VG247

Filed under: Charts Tagged: 2010, chart, hardware, january, NPD, software

Charts: December NPD 2009

Benny Wilkinson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:51:31 +0000

NPD Group have released the figures for December and there are lots of millions this time around. In the hardware chart Nintendo are dominant again and the PS3 just beat the 360:

Nintendo Wii – 3,810,000
Nintendo DS – 3,310,000
Playstation 3 – 1,360,000
Xbox 360 – 1,310,000
Playstation Portable – 654,700
PlayStation 2 – 333,200

December’s software also has Nintendo on top with some big numbers. Five Wii games, three 360, one PS3 and one DS:

New Super Mario Bros Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 2,820,000
Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii) – 2,410,000
Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, Wii) – 1,790,00
Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, 360) – 1,630,000
Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, PS3) – 1,120,000
Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) – 1,010,000
Mario Kart (Nintendo, Wii) – 936,100
Assassins Creed II (Ubisoft, 360) – 783,100
Left 4 Dead 2 (Electronic Arts, 360) – 728,500
Mario & Luigi: Bowser Inside Story (Nintendo, DS) – 656,700

At some point the figures for 2009 overall will come out, but I think that’s going to be the Nintendo games, the Modern Warfares, ODST and maybe some big third party game like Resident Evil 5 or Assassin’s Creed 2.

Source:

VG247

Posted in Charts Tagged: 2009, chart, December, hardware, NPD, software

News: Additional October Figures

Benny Wilkinson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:17:40 +0000

From GameSpot:

Borderlands (2K Games, 360) – 418,000
Borderlands (2K Games, PS3) – 113,000
Borderlands (2K Games, PC) – 15,000 (this figure ignore digital downloads, which are likely much higher)

From VG247:

In its few days of release, DJ Hero managed 122,000:

DJ Hero (Activision, 360) – 62,000 units
DJ Hero (Activision, PS3) – 39,000 units
DJ Hero (Activision, Wii) – 19,000 units
DJ Hero (Activision, PS2) – 3,300 units

Brutal Legend managed 216,000, and the 360 version is very likely 11th in the chart:

Brutal Legend (Electronic Arts, 360) – 150,000 units
Brutal Legend (Electronic Arts, PS3) – 66,000 units

Posted in News Tagged: 2009, November, NPD, software

Charts: October 2009

Benny Wilkinson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:44 +0000

The NPD Group have released the video game hardware and software charts for October 2009. The slim PS3 is still chugging along nicely this month, but the Wii reclaimed the top spot:

Wii – 506.9K
DS – 457.6K
Playstation 3 – 320.6K
Xbox 360 – 249.7K
Playstation Portable – 174.6K
Playstation 2 – 117.8

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves takes a well-deserved place at the top of the software chart. Borderlands (said by one analyst to have been ‘sent to die’ at retail) has done well for itself, standing toe-to-toe with Wii Fit (and very likely outselling it across all formats). Forza Motorsport 3 didn’t do badly for only a couple of days of sales, but DJ Hero, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City didn’t make the charts in a similarly short release window. Also missing is Demon’s Souls, but that was always expected to be a fairly niche title:

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Sony, PS3) – 537,000
Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii) – 441,000
Borderlands (2K Games, 360) – 418,000
Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, Wii) – 314,000
NBA 2K10 (2K Games, 360) – 311,000
Halo 3: ODST (Microsoft, 360) – 271,000
NBA 2K10 (2K Games, PS3) – 213,000
Forza Motorsport 3 (Microsoft, 360) – 175,000
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (Square Enix, DS) – 169,000
FIFA Soccer 10 (Electronic Arts, 360) – 156,000

The NPD’s Anita Fraser tweeted the overall stats. The industry as a whole is down compared to last year, but the consoles all being cheaper is obviously a factor:

October VG sales at $1.1B for month, down 19% from LY. Console hardware hardest hit down 21% in unit sales from LY. #NPDGames

Microsoft’s incredibly quick press release mentioned six 360 games in the console top 10 (ignoring handhelds), which means that Brutal Legend on 360 only just missed the chart, so even if it has to have sold less than 156,000 units on each console it did not do terribly.

Posted in Charts Tagged: 2009, chart, hardware, November, NPD, software

News: Gamasutra’s September Analysis

Benny Wilkinson — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:24:03 +0000

Gamasutra’s Matt Matthews has put up his regular analysis of the figures. I’ll link to it by page (which are essentially detailed enough for individual articles) because there’s a lot in there, so feel free to pick and choose:

Page One – Distribution and average sale price ($100) of The Beatles: Rock Band.
Page Two – A look at how the 360 has emerged as the dominant platform for music games (last year the Wii was equal/bigger, suggesting Wii gamers are less likely to buy annual updates). Also a look at how Guitar Hero 5 sold less than TB:RB, but as a series has seen a lower revenue drop than Rock Band (because of RB’s expensive instruments, which most people have now).
Page Three – Primarily a PS3 one, revealing just how readily people have snapped up the $300 system, while the 360′s price cut didn’t affect the average price at all, and seems to make $300 the real sweet spot. Apparently, the PS3 “is currently 450,000 units behind Microsoft’s system [for 2009] and will have to outsell its rival by around 35,000 units per week through the end of the year just to pull even”. With the price cut alone it’s already matched the rate of the 360′s 2007 price cut and Halo 3 launch though.
Page Four – The Wii and 360′s tie ratios (number of software divided by hardware sold) went up, while the PS3′s stayed constant. It’s normal for it to decrease when the install base increases rapidly, as consoles bought with a game or two drag it down, so it might dip for a while. There are also the lifetime software sales for each console in here (360 is ahead, suggesting the Wii has slowed). The PS3′s rate of sales is higher than the Wii’s but the installed base is smaller, so the overall number is lower, but both the 360 and PS3 are increasing their sales rate while the Wii is flat.
Page Five – A look at CoD:WaW’s DLC and how it has technically increased the average money Activision make from each copy of WaW sold, essentially giving WaW an average price of $65. There are some estimates and assumptions in there, but the theory is sound.
Page Six – This is just a look at what they’ll be looking out for in November (continued PS3 sales, UC2, ODST, Forza, the PSP Go, and whether the industry really is on the up again).

Posted in Analysis Tagged: 2009, Analysis, hardware, NPD, September, software

News: Additional September Figures

Benny Wilkinson — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:18:44 +0000

Here are some additional NPD figures for September, culled from various places around the web (including the top 20 already on this blog):

Scribblenauts – (Warner Bros., DS) – 194,000
Wii Fit – (Nintendo, Wii) – 134,000
The Beatles: Rock Band – (MTV/Electronic Arts, PS3) – 132,400
Dead Space: Extraction – (Electronic Arts, Wii) – 9000 OR 9,200
The Beatles: Rock Band – (MTV/Electronic Arts, All Formats) – 595,000
Guitar Hero 5 – (Activision Blizzard, All Formats) – 499,000

Sources:

Scribblenauts, Wii Fit and Beatles PS3: Gamasutra

Dead Space 9,000: Edge

Dead Space 9,200: Gamasutra

Music Games All Formats: Gamasutra

Posted in News Tagged: 2009, NPD, September, software

Charts: September Top 20

Benny Wilkinson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:53:43 +0000

Gamasutra has the NPD top 20 for September 2009, which I’ve reproduced below. They also have figures for three of the games in the top 20, so I’ve kept the numbers in this time:

(*) indicates a new entry for this month

(X) indicates last month’s position

(*) Halo 3:ODST – (Microsoft, 360) – 1,520,000
(2) Wii Sports Resort – (Nintendo, Wii) – 442,900
(1) Madden NFL 10 – (Electronic Arts, 360) – 289,600
(*) Mario & Luigi: Bower’s Inside Story (Nintendo, DS) – 258,100
(*) The Beatles Rock Band – (MTV/Electronic Arts, 360) – 254,000
(3) Madden NFL 10 – (Electronic Arts, PS3) – 246,500
(*) Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 – (Activision Blizzard, 360) – 236,000
(5) Batman: Arkham Asylum – (Square Enix, PS3) – 212,500
(*) Guitar Hero 5 – (Activision Blizzard, 360) – 210,800
(*) The Beatles: Rock Band – (MTV/Electronic Arts, Wii) – 208,600
(4) Batman: Arkham Asylum – (Square Enix, 360)
(*) Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days – (Square Enix, DS)
(*) Scribblenauts – (Warner Bros., DS) – 194,000
(*) NHL 10 (Electronic Arts, 360)
(*) Need For Speed: Shift – (Electronic Arts, 360)
(*) Need For Speed: Shift – (Electronic Arts, PS3)
(*) Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 – (Activision Blizzard, PS3)
(16) Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box – (Nintendo, DS)
(8) Wii Fit – (Nintendo, Wii) – 134,000
(*) The Beatles: Rock Band – (MTV/Electronic Arts, PS3) – 132,400

Gone from last month’s top twenty:

(6) Madden NFL 10 (PS2)
(7) Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP)
(9) Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
(10) Fossil Fighters (DS)
(11) Mario Kart (DS)
(12) New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
(13) Wii Play (Wii)
(14) Pokémon Platinum (DS)
(15) NCAA Footbal 10 (360)
(17) (Madden NFL 10 (Wii)
(18) Wolfenstein (360)
(19) EA Sports Active (Wii)
(20) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii)

Source:

Gamasutra

(*)

Posted in Charts Tagged: 2009, chart, NPD, September, software