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May NPD: Diablo 3 on top, all hardware (except 3DS) down
Surprising no one based on initial sale numbers provided by Activision Blizzard, Diablo 3 managed to best all comers to establish dominance in the month of May. Blizzard's latest is the first time a PC-only title has graced the top spot on NPD's "new physical retail only" list since July 2010, when StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty launched.Hardware sales are down compared to May 2011. Every console save for the 3DS – which saw a 17% spike in sales compared to last year – saw a decline year-over-year. Hardware saw a 39% drop, bringing in $138.9 million compared to $228.8 million in 2011. According to Microsoft, the Xbox 360 "remains the top-selling console of 2012," with 160,000 units sold.Software sales of new physical media (see: discs you cram into your GameBox) saw less of a drop, and are down 16%, accounting for $335.2 million in sales for the month of May. This is mainly attributed to less software launches this year compared to 2011, though the performance of Diablo 3 definitely helped to soften that blow. Also, for the first time, all of this sales data includes Walmart now.Hit the break for the full list of May's top software titles, which include a few surprises. For one, Modern Warfare 3 is not in the top three. How's that for a surprise?
December NPD: MW3, Just Dance 3 and Skyrim lead an overall down month
The industry as a whole still managed to bang out $3.99 billion in combined new sales of hardware, physical software and accessories between November 27 and December 31, 2011. This is, however, a 21 percent drop year-over-year, as the industry pulled down a combined $5.07 billion during the same period in 2010. "Overall industry results are not entirely surprising given that we are on the back end of the current console lifecycle, combined with the continued digital evolution of gaming," said Anita Frazier, an analyst with The NPD Group. "Core gamers continue to be engaged and spend on established franchises across both the digital and physical format using multiple devices for different gaming occasions." A smooth $2.04 billion of that $3.99 billion total was caused entirely by new physical software sales, a dash for the cash that continues to be lead by Modern Warfare 3. The pseudo-medieval allure of November's second place podium finisher, Skyrim, was not enough to keep its throne for a second term; the Dovahkiin has been usurped by Ubisoft's compulsory neon-dancing simulator, Just Dance 3. Comparatively, Skyrim got off easy: Uncharted 3, Saints Row: The Third and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, are all absent from December's Top-10 list, just weeks after their respective releases. Skyward Sword wasn't Nintendo's only horse in this race, however, as Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land closed out December in fourth and ninth place, respectively. Overall, Nintendo, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts claimed more Top-10 real estate than their competitors, each publishing two of the month's best selling titles.
November NPD: A new record, with Xbox 360 joined by MW3 and Skyrim on top (Update 2: Sony PR added)
(Update: Microsoft Chief of Interactive Entertainment Aaron Greenberg has released Xbox 360 sales via Twitter, which are included below.) It's a little good, a little bad with this year's November 2011 NPD results. While "unit sales grew for console hardware, as well as console, portable, and PC software," NPD analyst Anita Frazier warns that "a decline in average retail price in all categories" besides portable hardware resulted in dollar sales that were flat compared to last November. That said, November 2011 "marks the best November on record for sales of new physical content," besting the previous record holder, November 2008. Unsurprisingly, the Xbox 360 was the top selling piece of gear for the month and Frazier notes that the "gap between 360 sales and sales of the next best selling platform was the largest we've seen since December 2008 when the Nintendo DS was the top selling system." Microsoft Chief of Interactive Entertainment Aaron Greenberg later added via Twitter that the Xbox 360 sold 1.7 million consoles during the month of November, up 23% year over year. For the month, Nintendo announced it sold more than 860,000 Wii systems, more than 795,000 Nintendo 3DS systems and more than 350,000 Nintendo DS systems. Meanwhile, Sony declined to provide specific sales numbers for the PS3. According to Sony PR chief Patrick Seybold, "PlayStation 3 is off to a phenomenal start to the holiday season, recording the best ever Black Friday sales period in the console's five-year history. According to the November NPD report the PS3 saw a 70% increase in hardware and a 30% increase in software year-over-year." The PS3 sold 530,000 units last year, which would situate PS3 sales for November 2011 in the neighborhood of 901,000 units. In the software arena, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 took its perch at the top of the charts, besting Black Ops "by about 7%," while Skyrim managed "a five-fold increase over Oblivion's first month sales" coming in just a half-million units short of matching its predecessor's lifetime sales. Other newcomers include single SKU exclusives like Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception in seventh place and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in ninth. [Image source: onrpg.net]
October NPD: 3DS rising, a good month for games with 'Bat' in the title (Update: BF3, Batman, RAGE numbers)
Microsoft claims another month on top for the Xbox 360, with 393,000 units sold for the NPD's October sales period, 20% up year over year and, in the words of MS Chief of Staff for Interactive Entertainment Business Aaron Greenberg, the system's "biggest October ever." Following up is ... the 3DS, randomly bouncing back two months after its price drop, with "over 250,000" sold, according to Nintendo. Try to look shocked when we tell you that Battlefield 3 topped the software chart. The top six games on NPD's sales chart are all October releases, with Batman: Arkham City, NBA 2K12, Rage, Just Dance 3, and -- believe it or not -- super-hardcore, unfriendly RPG Dark Souls all placing. Find the full top ten after the break.
September NPD: Madden, Gears, Dead Island are hits (Updated with Nintendo hardware numbers!)
It should come as no surprise that Madden NFL 12 beat everything else in NPD's software chart for the month of September, unless you're really not into sports games and forgot it came out. Second place is also pretty expected, with the massive rollout of Gears of War 3 massively rolling into people's homes. Third place, however, is a bit more interesting -- Dead Island, from semi-obscure publisher Deep Silver, outsold almost everything else based on the strength of that trailer and the word "zombies." Find the top ten after the break. In hardware, Microsoft reported Xbox 360 takes the top hardware spot once again, touting 438,000 units sold in the month. Nintendo reports sales of 360,000 3DS units in the five week September reporting period, as well as 240,000 Wiis and 145,000 DS systems. Sony has not released official sales numbers for the PS3 or PSP. In larger trends, total industry sales are down 6 percent year over year, with a mere $1.16 billion changing hands in September.
August NPD: Annual sales drop again, Deus Ex augments the top spot
We're starting to see a trend develop -- a super, super disheartening trend. According to the NPD group, total sales in the U.S. gaming industry dropped 23 percent year-over-year during the month of August; almost exactly the same amount sales declined in July. NPD's Anita Frazier explained, "the bulk of the decline can be attributed to the shift of the annual Madden release from August to September." (The NPD actually counts August 30 as part of September, which seems pretty zany.) Gaming hardware saw an increase in sales over July, largely fueled by the price cuts endured by the 3DS and PlayStation 3. According to a memo sent out by Nintendo following the NPD report, the 3DS discount moved 185,000 consoles from August 12 through the end of the month. This wave managed to increase dollar and unit sales of handheld hardware to a year-over-year increase over August 2010, which bucks the downward trend followed by the rest of the industry. Hooray for discrete electronics! Surprisingly, the top-selling game for August was Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which was only on store shelves for five days during the NPD's tracking window. The group doesn't expect the augmented title to rollover its reign into September, instead expecting Madden to reign supreme. Check out August's Top 10 software performers after the jump!
July NPD: Sales down 26%, NCAA Football leads software
Ouch! Overall video game industry sales are down 26% in North America for July, year over year, with a 29% dip in console hardware sales mostly to blame. New retail software sales saw a less severe 17% drop, while accessories saw only an 8% drop. Unsurprisingly, on the hardware front, "the platforms that contributed a greater portion of new physical retail dollar sales as compared to last year were the Xbox 360 and the PS3," says NPD's Anita Frazier. She also adds that July 2011 is the industry's "lowest month since October 2006." We'll say it again: Ouch! As has become the norm, Microsoft trumpeted its performance in an email claiming a "45% share of the overall current-generation console market." Six years into the Xbox 360's lifecycle, the console managed to move 277,000 units "maintaining the number-one console spot in the U.S. for 2011." Frazier notes that, while the Xbox 360 may have had the strongest numbers of the three consoles, July "was the first month that the Xbox 360 saw a year-over-year decline since December 2009." Of course, last July saw a strong sales spike "driven by the introduction of the Kinect-ready slim form factor SKU," Frazier reminds us. On the software front, July 2011 only saw "17 new releases [...] compared to 29 last July." With NCAA Football 12 taking the top sales spot, reflecting a "15% increase in unit sales versus NCAA 11 in July 2010," Frazier postulates that this year's Madden delay might have prompted football fans to pick up EA's earlier offering. Find the full top ten list after the break.
June NPD: Duke Nukem Forever is #2
Yes, it's true. A startling (and vaguely insulting) number of American consumers ignored our review and purchased Duke Nukem Forever, rocketing it to the #2 position on the NPD sales charts for the month of June. Perhaps they just didn't want to ask for refunds on those 14-year-old pre-orders. The Duke occupies a position on the charts just under its equally retro (in a different way) Take-Two contemporary, L.A. Noire. Also notable on the sales charts is the debut of another time-lost title, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. At #5, it is the first 3DS exclusive to chart in the NPD top ten. Find the top ten best-selling games listed after the break. It's definitely a triumphant month for the past, as total game sales were down from $1.15 billion in June of 2010 to $1.03 billion in June of this year. Once again, however, Microsoft is happy, declaring its Xbox 360 the only console in the US to show year-over-year growth. The Xbox was the top-selling console with 507,000 units which Microsoft claims is "nearly twice as many units as other current-generation platforms" this month.
May NPD: LA Noire makes the case, Xbox 360 stays on top
Even though we hid the list of May's top software sellers in North America after the break, we have a suspicion that your unparalleled acumen and unmatched perception will provide the clues necessary to determine what the month's top seller was. Simple. Let's move onto harder stuff. Without a solid historical basis, determining the month's top-selling console might be difficult. So we'll give you a hint: It's been the top selling console for 11 of the past 12 months. That's right, it's the Xbox 360 which managed to move 270,000 units according to Microsoft, representing 39% year-over-year growth and marking the "seventeenth month of year-over-year hardware sales increases," according to a now routine email boast from Redmond. Overall video game spending is down 13% year-over-year, dropping from $829.4m to $718.8m; while hardware is only down 5%, video game software was down a whopping 19% from May 2010 to 2011. Looking at the list of top sellers, you'll see a few notable facts: the poorly received Brink managed to arrive in second place; there are two Lego games from two separate publishers; and perhaps most notably, there isn't a single Nintendo-published title on the list. Find the full software rundown after the break.
April NPD: Mortal Kombat wins for Outworld, Xbox is top console again
The Mortal Kombat reboot rose up against franchise fatigue, an incapacitated PSN, and space-time-tunneling competition to claim the top spot on the NPD's April sales charts. Turns out there's a big audience out there for seeing inside some dude's body as his bones are breaking. Oh, and for accessible, fast-paced fighting games. (But mostly the X-ray bone breaks.) According to the NPD, Mortal Kombat sold just under 900K copies. Portal 2, of course, came in at No. 2. Likely as a result of these two games, total US spending was up 20 percent year-over year, from $802.4 million in 2010 to $961.2 million in 2011. Microsoft can also claim some responsibility for the high numbers -- it informed us that the Xbox 360 was the top-selling console last month, moving 297,000 units (a year-over-year increase of 60 percent).
March NPD: Let Pokemon show you its sales
The 3DS launched last month to mixed results, as far as we can tell. NPD doesn't report hardware numbers, of course, but the agency reports that in its first seven days on the market, the handheld's performance "compares quite favorably to that of the best-selling dedicated handheld gaming platform of all time, the Nintendo DS." It sold about 100,000 fewer units than the 479,000 DS did in its launch month -- but that was a November. Nintendo previously said the console had the best first day of any handheld in US history. Even so, it managed not to be the top seller of the month. That honor goes to ... the Nintendo DS. And here's why. The top two games, unsurprisingly, are both DS titles -- Pokemon Black and White, the latter of which is the best-selling Pokemon game at launch ever, the NPD says. In fact, the only 3DS title on the top 10 is Lego Star Wars 3, and that shares the position with Wii, DS, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the same game. The NPD provides no indication of how many copies were sold on any one platform. Directly under the Pokemans at No. 3 is Homefront, suggesting that as far as gimmicks go, not being very good trumps 3D. A pair of debuts from EA, Dragon Age 2 and Crysis 2, also found their way into the top 10 -- the full list can be seen after the break.
February NPD: Total sales up, new games come out swinging
Here's something we didn't expect to say in a non-holiday month or one without the launch of a new DS or something: Total US game revenue is up year-over-year, from $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion. Hardware and accessories both saw gains, while software dipped a bit between February 2010 and 2011. There's also good news in software top ten chart -- at least, good news for people who like the charts to look different every month, with top-ten debuts for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Killzone 3, Bulletstorm, and Mario Sports Mix, all of which launched in the month of February. The dance genre continued to dominate, with Just Dance 2, Michael Jackson, and Zumba Fitness holding on.
January NPD: It's a dance, dance, dance, dance revolution
The NPD Group's analysis of games industry business for January 2011 has hit -- and the real hits are dancing games. The top 10 best-selling titles for the month include four dancing games: Just Dance 2, Zumba Fitness: Join the Party, Dance Central and Michael Jackson: The Experience. In fact, even the month's two biggest new releases, Dead Space 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2, were outsold by Ubisoft's unstoppable Just Dance sequel (though the former only got one week of sales, having launched January 25). On the hardware front, sales were down eight percent overall versus January 2010, with software and accessories also dipping by five percent and six percent, respectively. Microsoft has provided specific hardware sales numbers, reporting 381,000 consoles sold for the month, up 48,000 units from January 2010. Sony, for its part, isn't talking hardware, instead saying that PS3 software sales are up 25 percent year-over-year. Keep reading past the break for the full top 10 in software sales.
December NPD: Xbox 360 comes out on top in 2010 revenue
Microsoft has claimed the year of 2010, as a whopping $6.2 billion was spent on Xbox 360 games and accessories at retail, making it the (financial) king of consoles last year. December's NPD report also shows a 42 percent year-over-year growth for the Xbox 360 and, as expected, Kinect sales were strong, launching Kinect Sports into the top 10 for the month. Elsewhere in the report, NPD says that total new, physical video game sales are down by 9 percent to $5.06 billion, and video game hardware is down a total of 16 percent to $1.84 billion. In fact, the only tracked category that saw year-over-year growth in December was video game accessories -- the PlayStation Move and Kinect pushed that category up 10 percent from last December to sales of $853 million. Hit the break to see the best-selling titles of December 2010, according to the NPD's numbers. World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion makes a solid appearance at No. 3, and Disney Epic Mickey's status as a "core" game on console with a largely casual audience didn't hurt sales too much, apparently -- it came in at No. 6.
November NPD: Best month ever for retail, Xbox
November is traditionally a big, big month for games, thanks to the impending holidays and the temporary financial insanity bestowed upon Americans by the Black Friday Effect. This November may have been the biggest. The NPD reports that last month was the "best November on record in terms of new physical retail sales," ahead of November 2008 by around $30 million. Call of Duty: Black Ops had the biggest first month of any game ever, with 8.4 million copies. And Microsoft (producer of the best-selling non-DS console) tells us that with 1.37 million consoles sold, November 2010 was not only the biggest November ever for Xbox, it was the biggest month ever. Thanks, Kinect! Thanks, new hardware! Handhelds were actually down vs. previous years, though the DS was still the top-selling console, with the Mario red DSi XL representing the majority of sales. Nintendo said that "over 1.5 million" DS systems were sold last month. After the break, check out the top-selling games of the month. You already know what's at number one, of course. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood follows at #2, with surprisingly strong showings for both Fable 3 and Donkey Kong Country Returns down the list.
October NPD: NBA 2K11 tops charts, Xbox 360 'best selling console in 2010'
Here is the second edition of the revised (and less informative) monthly NPD report. With the market research group no longer sharing specific hardware figures, it's noteworthy to point out that only Microsoft has (as of writing) released concrete sales numbers. Major Nelson tweeted that Microsoft sold 325K Xbox 360s in October. Although the figure represents a 32-percent drop from the previous month, it was enough to secure Microsoft's spot as best-selling console of the month. Major Nelson also added that the Xbox 360 "is the best selling console in 2010 [with] 3.5 million" sold so far. Sony's response doesn't offer console sales numbers, but Patrick Seybold commented on increased momentum for the company's PlayStation Move motion controller. "The PS3 Move Bundle had a 15-percent increase in sales since launch last month, and we're working hard to keep the inventory up across the country to meet strong consumer demand." In addition, Seybold reminded us of the impending launch of Sony's big holiday game: "With next week's launch of the industry's most anticipated title, Gran Turismo 5, we're sure to carry the momentum through the holidays." Nintendo, as of the time of publishing, had not offered comment. Software sales jumped 6 percent year-over-year for the month to $605 million. The multiplatform release of NBA 2K11 helped propel it to the top of the charts, undoubtedly aided by EA Sports' cancellation of NBA Elite 11. Fallout, Medal of Honor and Fable all made strong debuts -- but Rock Band 3's 15th-place position in sales has us concerned. NPD analyst Anita Frazier did make a special note in the report, assuring us that "this game has the potential to perform well over the holidays." The top-ten software breakdown is posted after the break.
September NPD: Hardware down, but Halo Reaches upward
Welcome to the new NPD report! The agency's new reticence means we have no idea how hardware did in September -- except for the Xbox 360, which was at the top of the charts with 483,989 units sold. The NPD does report that at $383 million, total hardware sales are down 19 percent year-over-year. We have a bit more information about software, but the format has changed for that as well -- instead of each individual version of a game (on each platform, for example) counting as one game on the list, they've been totaled. So Madden NFL 11 occupies one slot on the top ten this month instead of two. Halo: Reach would have done well regardless of this change (it's at #1, after all, and on only one platform) but now we see games on the top ten that might have been muscled out by the Maddens -- like Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Metroid: Other M. Microsoft, never one to ignore a success story, blasted out Halo: Reach's first-month sales numbers: 3.3 million units. It notes that Reach is "only the third game this generation to surpass 3 million unit sales in the first month." The first? Yup, Halo 3. Update: Hardware sales figures can be found here. Embrace change after the break.
August NPD: It's another mad, mad, Madden year
The sun will rise, the moon will set and it would be a sign of the end days if Madden didn't rule August software sales in the United States. The August NPDs are out and Madden NFL 11 sold over 1.8 million units in the month, a six percent increase over last year, with significant increases on PS3. Mafia 2, which Take-Two expects to be profitable, entered with a badda-boom and appears to have sold around 200K units during the month -- the title has been a chart topper in the UK since launch. The Xbox 360 remains the top-selling console for a second month, but its sales did drop nearly 20 percent from July. The only hardware to see sales gains during the month was the PlayStation 3, which according to the NPD has now seen 13 consecutive months of year-over-year sales increases. Overall, hardware and software sales were down both year-over-year and year-to-date. Sales for hardware, software and accessories combined was down 10 percent to $818.9M from last year and down 8 percent year-to-date to $8.31 billion. Consoles tried to make up for the sagging handheld market, as NPD analyst Anita Frazier notes, "The 360 and PS3 platforms both grew in dollar sales versus last year. In fact, the 360 platform contributed more than 1/3 of total new physical retail sales across hardware, software and accessories while the PS3 platform contributed over 1/4 of total dollar sales." Oh yeah, one more thing: the top ten list of titles after the break only charts console and portable SKUs, so it's worth mentioning StarCraft 2 sold another 300K units in August, which would make it the second best-selling game for the month... if it were factored in. Frazer also stated, "PC games retail dollar sales saw a 35% increase over last August." 360: 357K, down 83K (-19.7%) DS: 343K, down 55.3K (-13.9%) Wii: 244K, down 9.7K (-3.8%) PS3: 226K, up 11K (5.1%) PSP: 79K, down 4.6K (-5.5%)
July NPD: Xbox 360 takes the lead, first time since Sept. '07
Compared to last year, July's NPD numbers are fairly static, with overall video game industry sales down just 1% from $850.6m to $846.5m. While software sales were down a sizable 8% with newcomer NCAA Football 11 bringing in the top two spots for a combined 667K units sold, hardware sales were up a hefty 12%, mostly on the back of the newly redesigned (and, ostensibly, fixed!) Xbox 360 S. Looks like there was "unprecedented demand," like Microsoft said. Most notably, that July sales surge resulted in a minor 2% drop in Xbox sales while every other console suffered double digit drops. This, as you can see in our lineup below, has earned the Xbox 360 the rare opportunity to best the Nintendo DS as the best-selling piece of video game hardware last month. To put things in perspective, NPD analyst Anita Frazier notes, "It's the first time since September '07 (Halo 3 launch) that the 360 was the top-selling hardware platform." While the list of software sales only charts console and portable SKUs, there is one other game that deserves to be mentioned: StarCraft 2. Despite just five days on the market in July, the much-anticipated RTS sold an impressive 721K units at retail in July. Of course when you factor in digital and global sales, it sold a lot more than that. 360: 444K, down 9K (-2%) DS: 398K, down 113K (-22%) Wii: 254K, down 169K (-40%) PS3: 215K, down 90K (-30%) PSP: 84K, down 37K (-31%)
June NPD: Hardware's way up, Red Dead reloads
Compared to last month's disappointing NPD numbers, with the industry down 5 percent overall, this month's numbers are ... well, they're still sort of a bummer with industry sales down 6 percent, but for nearly opposite reasons! While hardware was down in May, 20 percent year-over-year, it's up 5 percent this month with every console posting positive percentages. The newly revamped Xbox 360 led with the biggest improvement, with sales up 132 percent while the Wii managed to place 3rd, with the lowest overall improvement at 26 percent. While last month's software sales were up 4 percent, mostly riding on Red Dead Redemption's back, this month's numbers are still Red Dead-heavy, but down 15 percent year-over-year as Rockstar San Diego's horse opus fell from a combined 1.5m units to just shy of 1m. This month's numbers also put Red Dead as the top seller for the year thus far, according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier. Much of the month's software lineup looks the same as last's – there's Super Mario Galaxy, barely dropping at all; there's UFC and Wii Fit; and, of course, New Super Mario Bros. – but we're also welcoming Just Dance back to the top 10 along with newcomers Toy Story 3 on DS and LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 on Wii. Check the full software list after the break. DS: 511K, up 127K (+33%) 360: 453K, up 257K (+132%) Wii: 423K, up 88K (+26%) PS3: 305K, up 150K (+97%) PSP: 121K, up 62K (+105%)
