November-NPD
Latest
November NPD: Xbox One leads consoles, Call of Duty tops software
Overall retail sales for new hardware, software and accessories saw an 11 percent drop in November 2014, versus the same reported period last year. For most of 2014, software sale declines have offset year-over-year hardware spending, however, this November, "hardware declines totaled $294 million while software declined $17 million or 2 percent," NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan said.
November NPD: Black Ops 2 reigns in Black Friday month, Halo 4 follows
November was yet another month in which the physical retail video game industry brought in less cash than it did in 2011. Specifically, total sales for the month were down 11 percent: $2.55 billion this year, as compared with $2.87 billion during the same period last year. It's worth noting, however, that what the NPD Group considers "November" is actually October 28 through November 24, which means that sales from the Sunday and Monday following Black Friday did not contribute. When broken down into individual figures for hardware, software and accessories, the song remains much the same as it has been all year. Hardware sales pulled down $838.9 million dollars this November, which is 13 percent less than the $962.2 million from last year.As has become the routine, Microsoft holds top honors as far as console sales are concerned, with consumers purchasing 1.26 million Xbox 360s over the course of November and 750,000 during Black Friday week alone. Meanwhile, Nintendo's Wii U sold 450,000 units during the seven days it was available on NPD's watch, with Wii sales trailing slightly behind at 420,000 units. 3DS sales piled up to 540,000 units, while 370,000 DS handhelds of varying type were also sold in November.The accessories segment has broken its streak as the only portion of the physical retail industry to perform better than its 2011 self, reporting a grand total of $280.9 million in sales for last month, which is a year-over-year decrease of eight percent. Despite the drop, Skylanders figure sales were up 250 percent.Software sales mirrored the overall industry's percentage drop, taking an 11 percent dive down to just $1.46 billion dollars, as opposed to the $1.65 billion it earned last year. Unsurprisingly, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Halo 4 and Assassin's Creed 3 lead the charge on the list of November's top 10 best-selling games, which as always can be found after the break.
November NPD: 360 sees second best month ever
November's NPD numbers have just come through the news wire and the Xbox 360 did mighty fine. Hardware sales for November were at the second highest levels ever with the Xbox 360 moving 770,000 consoles. Though, the Wii was no slouch selling 981,000 consoles and the PS3 picked up a bunch of steam from October selling roughly 466,000. Moving on to the software side of things we see that four out of the top ten games are Xbox 360 titles including Call of Duty 4 at at number one with an amazing 1.57 million units, Assassin's Creed at #3, Mass Effect at #6 and Halo 3 at #9. We've posted a complete numbers breakdown of all the NPD data after the break, you know, just in case you're a fanboy who loves his numbers. The gaming universe is strong young ones, $2.63 billion spent in November is nothing to take lightly.[Thanks, Charles]
