Tag Archives: august npd

Darksiders 2 was the best-selling game at US retail during the month of August.

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Ahead of the NPD’s August sales data release this week, Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter has predicted a gloomy result.

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In August, Nintendo hardware sales continued to increase month-to-month, with DS tops for the second month in a row, and Wii the second best selling console, again, for August.

Combined, DS and Wii moved 830,300 units while broken down, DS moved 552,900 and Wii 227,400.

“August NPD results showed an increase in month-to-month sales for both Wii and Nintendo DS hardware systems, demonstrating the continued appeal of our value-conscious products,” said Nintendo in a statement.

“For the fifth consecutive month, the Nintendo DS enjoyed outstanding retail performance, selling through twice as many units as any other system in August and breaking the record for monthly hardware sales for August.

“Wii is the only console that continues to consistently sell more than a quarter of a million units each month, as it has done in every one of the past 34 months since its launch in 2006.”

Nintendo had four of the top 10 best selling software titles, three being for Wii, which included: Wii Sports Resort moving 754,000 units, Wii Fit 128,000, Mario Kart Wii 120,000, and Fossil Fighters on DS moving 92,000 units.

NPD Group’s Anita Frazier has stated that music game sales are down 46 percent year-on-year, and but unit sales are “down much less because lower prices are playing into the dollar sales decline.”

However, there looks to be a possible silver-lining with The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 both having debuted this month, so sales should be up for the genre when September figures are released next month.

Still, Frazier says that “it’s the third best-selling genre for the year after General Action and Multiple/Other Sports.”

Good to know.

According to the NPD Group’s Anita Frazier, all hardware systems with the exception of PS2 “realized an increase in unit sales over July”.

The PS3 captured the greatest increase month-over-month with unit sales boosted by 72% over July levels, but DS was the clear winner in August.

• DS 552.9K (538.9K)
• Wii 277.4K (252.5K)
• Xbox 360 215.4K (202.9K)
• PS3 210.0K (121.8K)
• PSP 140.3K (122.8K)
• PS2 105.9K (108K)

All hardware systems with the exception of the PS2 realized an increase in unit sales over July – those figures are in parenthesis.

Frazier also noted in the release that Wii is selling at levels comparable to what PS2 was doing at about this point in its lifecycle.

Interesting.

According to this Wired piece, DS sold more in August than any other console ever in the US.

Nintendo sold 518,300 DS Lite’s in America last month, the first time NPD has tracked a game console as moving over half a million units in August. The previous record was set when Sony sold 454,300 units of PlayStation 2 in August 2002.

More info through there. Go Nintendo, etc.

Edge has posted up its monthly NPD analysis feature, which is probably good news if you’re Peter Moore. Madden flattened the opposition with a top-three finish in the US last month, while on the hardware side things played out as per normal, with 360 and PS3 virtually neck and neck while DS and Wii ran away with the show.

Again, nice graphs. Just what you need on a Monday morning.

The GlobeAndMail‘s published the top 20 software chart from last night’s Canadian NPD for August, although there are no figures to be had, sadly. Wii Fit won it. No idea on hardware. Hit this for all the news from the US NPD release.

1. Wii Fit – Wii
2. Mario Kart Wii – Wii
3. Madden NFL 09 – Xbox 360
4. Wii Play – Wii
5. Madden NFL 09 – PlayStation 3
6. Soul Calibur IV – Xbox 360
7. Too Human – Xbox 360
8. Guitar Hero: On Tour – Nintendo DS
9. Rock Band: Special Edition Bundle – Wii
10. New Super Mario Bros. – Nintendo DS
11. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day – Nintendo DS
12. Soul Calibur IV – PlayStation 3
13. Mario Party – Nintendo DS
14. Super Smash Bros: Brawl – Wii
15. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day – Nintendo DS
16. Rock Band: Special Edition Bundle – PlayStation 2
17. Mario Kart – Nintendo DS
18. Pokemon: Diamond – Nintendo DS
19. Super Mario Galaxy – Wii
20. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock – Wii

What a shocker that was. DS beat everything, Wii beat PS3 and 360, and 360 beat PS3. Who’d have thunk it? You may well just be waking up to this, like most normal people in Europe, but thankfully you don’t need to go anywhere else to find out what sold what in the US in August. It’s all here.

Well, in the list below, anyway.

• August NPD: Xbox 360 claims shock victory over PS3
• August NPD: EA’s Madden takes top three
• August NPD: Figures released, 360 beats PS3
• August NPD: Nintendo praises double hardware win, Wii nearly hits 12 million
• August NPD: Sony points to “strong month” in statement
• August NPD: Xbox 360 hits 10.9 million install base in the US
• August NPD: Microsoft noble in response to HD victory
• August NPD: US growth slows to single digit for first time in 27 months

Nintendo focused on yet another hardware win in its post-NPD press release last night, saying that Wii’s 448,000 sales in the US last month had brought the machine’s American install base close to 12 million.

DS’s 514,000 sales made it the most popular Stateside games machine in August.

Five Nintendo format games had been in the top ten this time, said the firm, the highest being Wii Fit at number four.

“The positive public response to Nintendo DS and Wii has stayed strong throughout 2008,” said Nintendo’s chief smiler, Cammie Dunaway.

“New titles like Madden NFL 09 All-Play for Wii have joined top 10 veterans like Wii Fit, demonstrating the wide and long-lasting appeal of Nintendo games.”

Full thing through the link. Get the rest of our NPD coverage here, and all the raw sales data here.

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Sony stuck to numbers in its post-NPD press release last night, saying it had shown “strong” sales in the US in August and keeping the trash talk very light.

“We had yet another strong month for PlayStation in August, which validates that consumers are indeed recognizing the long-term value that PS3 offers as both a gaming and home entertainment device,” said CEO Jack Tretton.

“We also began shipping the new 80GB PS3 model in late August to address any short term inventory transitions from the 40GB to 80GB model. We’re looking forward to a solid holiday season and are excited to offer a string of unmatched content to consumers in the coming months with LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, Resistance 2, and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.”

Year-to-date growth for the entire PlayStation brand was at 21 percent, said the firm, now standing at $3.7 billion in revenue.

Full thing after the link. Get the rest of our NPD coverage here, and all the raw sales data here.

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Microsoft announced last night that Xbox 360 now stands at an install base of 10.9 million in the US, meaning the machine will pass the 11 million mark this month.

That’s barring some kind of Biblical disaster, obviously.

Xbox 360 beat PS3 in August US sales, NPD data showed yesterday.

Get the rest of our NPD coverage here, and all the raw sales data here.

Microsoft’s post-NPD press release didn’t mention PS3 once, which probably goes to show just how close it is between 360 and the Sony machine in the US.

Instead, the statement focused on the figures, reiterating primarily that post-cut 360 sales were up 100 percent in the US in the first week of September, and saying the 195,000 Xbox 360s sold in August had contributed to a life-to-date spending of $10.7 billion on hardware and software.

Full thing through the link. Get the rest of our NPD coverage here, and all the raw sales data here.

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August NPD data has shown that the US market grew 9 percent year-on-year last month, the first time monthly growth has dipped below 10 percent in 27 months.

The overall industry took $994.8 million in revenue in August.

Hardware accounted for $384.6 of that figure, a 3 percent year-on-year increase. Wii and DS were still completely dominant over the month, with 360 winning out in its battle with PS3.

“Despite smaller growth this month, the industry is up 32 percent year-to-date and remains on target to achieve annual revenues in the range of $22 to $24 billion,” said NPD analyst, Anita Frazier.

Software sales rose 13 percent to $489.1 million in August, with Madden leading the way.

Overall, Wii was the greatest driver of industry revenue last month.

“Across hardware, software and accessories, products for the Wii platform contributed 28 percent of total industry dollar sales for the month of August,” Frazier added.

Get all the raw NPD data here.

The NPD results are in, and against all predictions Xbox 360 outsold PlayStation 3 in August in the US.

The Microsoft machine sold 195,200 machines to PS3′s 185,400 consoles.

Both Michael Pachter and EEDAR predicted a PS3 win in the HD console market.

Expect Microsoft to go PR mental over this.

Get all the raw NPD data here.

According to the August NPD data, all three versions of EAs Madden 09 cleaned up in the software sales charts for the month.

The 360 version came in first, selling a whopping 1 million copies, whilst its PS3 (643k) and PS2 (424.5k) counterparts came in second and third respectively.

In fact, Madden was the only PS3 entry in this month’s top ten.

You Americans sure do love your “football”.

By Mike Bowden

NPD’s released its August figures. Everything below:

Hardware Unit Sales

• PlayStation 3 - 185.4K
• PSP – 253.0K
• PS2 – 144.1K
• 360 – 195.2K
• Wii – 453.0K
• Nintendo DS – 518.3K

Software

1. Madden NFL 09 (360, EA)
2. Madden NFL 09 (PS3, EA)
3. Madden NFL 09 (PS2, EA)
4. Wii Fit (Wii, Nintendo)
5. Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Nintendo)
6. Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo)
7. Soulcalibur IV (360, Namco)
8. Too Human (360, Microsoft)
9. Madden NFL 09 (Wii, EA)
10. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS, Activision Blizzard)

Dollar Sales Aug-07 Aug-08 CHG YTD Aug 07 YTD Aug 08 CHG
Video Games $994.76M $1.08M 9% $8.02B $10.55B 32%
Video Games Hardware $384.59M $394.53M 3% $3.11B $3.73B 20%
Video Games Software $489.06M $550.67M 13% $3.80B $5.45B 43%
Video Game Accessories $121.11M $137.33M 13% $1.11B $1.38B 24%

Peter Moore’s told Gamasutra that Madden sales are up. In fact, he’s said that Madden 09′s done $133.5 million in sales in its launch month, 6 percent more than Madden 08.

“In the month of August we may be bigger than a certain Eastern European gangster,” he said.

Couldn’t wait for tomorrow’s NPD, clearly.

More through the link. Thanks, Kotaku.