Tag Archives: january npd 2009

Having been pipped to the January NPD analysis post by Edge’s Kris Graft last week, Gamasutra’s posted up its exclusive Matt Mathews feature on the US sales numbers.

As ever, it’s a solid effort. Nice graphs. Sombre colouring. Great pies. Very authoritative. Not as Day-glo as the Edge piece, but you can’t have everything.

Do you need to read all this again? Off you go, then.

Peter Dille, Sony’s SVP of marketing, has finally commented on the less-than-stellar NPD numbers reported for PlayStation consoles for January. Well, sort of.

“The PlayStation brand experienced a record year in sales in 2008 and we have every reason to believe our blockbuster line up combined with PS3′s position as the best Blu-ray player and most sophisticated entertainment device out there, will continue to fuel increased marketshare and momentum into 2009″, he said.

“We’ve truly upped the ante this year with an unmatched software lineup ahead, kickstarting with the much anticipated and platform-moving title Killzone 2 later this month.

“We’re the only company to offer three viable platforms today and will continue to deliver a seamless and comprehensive entertainment experience to our customers for many years to come.”

The January 2009 NPD figures showed that PS3 sales were down year-on-year, having sold 203,000 units in the US, while Wii and Xbox 360 sales continued to climb.

Full thing through the link.

Edge doesn’t take shit lying down. No sir. Despite losing the delights of Matt Mathews’ famed NPD analysis features back to Gamasutra in November, Edge’s own Kris Graft has stepped up to the plate with his own graphs, his own words, his own coloured pie charts based on the monthly NPD release. See here.

It’s good. Strong colours for the graphs and four whole pages. And it’s fast. The figures were only released last night, and Mathews’ piece is yet to appear. Has Matt been flanked? How will Gama respond? Features an hour after the NPD release, 20 pages long with 4D graphs?

This sort of stuff keeps us awake at night. Check Kris’s pies out.

Wrath of the Lich King was the biggest selling PC game in the US last month, NPD figures have shown, with Spore and the WoW: Battle Chest coming in at second and third place respectively.

Full top 20 below. Hit this for all the rest of the new from last night’s NPD release.

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
2. Spore
3. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. Left 4 Dead
5. Fallout 3
6. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
7. Call Of Duty: World At War
8. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
9. World Of Warcraft
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
11. Grand Theft Auto IV
12. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
13. Warcraft III Battle Chest
14. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
15. Far Cry 2
16. Diablo Battle Chest
17. Lord of the Rings: Conquest
18. MS Flight Simulator X: Gold
19. Civilization IV
20. Spore Galactic Edition

Sony hasn’t yet put out a post-NPD press release. A quick look at its hardware figures for January may show why.

All PlayStation platforms saw a serious year-on-year decline in the US last month.

PlayStation 3 sales were down nearly 25 percent compared to January 2008, selling 203,000 as opposed to 269,000 last year.

PSP also dropped 25 percent, moving 172,000 units compared to 230,000 last year.

And last but most definitely least, PS2 started to properly nose-dive. The ancient machine was down almost 62 percent year-on-year, selling 101,000 units.

By comparison, Xbox 360 enjoyed 33 percent growth for the period, and Nintendo hardware growth was off the chart and 148 percent and 99 percent for Wii and DS respectively.

Microsoft’s post-NPD statement’s a happy affair, dwelling on 33 percent growth for 360 sales in Janaury compared to the same month in 2007, and claiming last month set a record for people signing up to Live.

More than 17 million people have now signed up to the online service, said the company, and the Halo Wars demo was downloaded more than 2 million times in the first week of release.

You can hear the gigantic smile from here. Full thing after the break.

More »

The January NPD has shown astonishing sales for Wii Fit, Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii, the three leading the software top ten for the month.

In addition, despite hell freezing over in the financial sector, January software sales have seen a ten percent increase Y-o-Y.

“Software sales still increased 10 percent over last January, indicating that continued strong hardware sales are not occurring at the expense of software sales,” said Anita Frazier, NPD analyst.

“Only two of the top 10 games this month were new releases.

“The continued strength of games that have been in the market for some time clues us into just how many new consumers are coming into the industry,” she went on.

“This broadening of the audience for gaming will help buoy the industry through these tough economic times, provided they have enough compelling content to keep them interested.”

The full January NPD software sales are as follows:

1. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) – 777K
2. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) – 415K
3. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 292K
4. Left 4 Dead (EA, 360) – 243K
5. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard, 360) – 235K
6. SKATE 2 (EA, 360) – 199K
7. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Activision Blizzard, Wii) – 155K
8. New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo DS) 135K
9. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo, DS) 132K
10. Lord of the Rings Conquest (EA, 360) – 113K

The US games industry grew 13 percent year-on-year to $1.33 billion, just-released January NPD figures have shown.

Hardware sales were up 17 percent for the month compared to the previous period, hitting $445.4 million.

Software sales rose less steeply, but showed a solid 10 percent increase. $676.6 million worth of games were sold in the US last month.

Peripherals sales were up 11 percent compared to January 2007, breaking the $200 million mark at $209.8 million.

The January 2009 NPD hardware results have just been released, and, surprising no one, Nintendo is the definitive winner of the lot.

The results are as follows:

• Wii – 679,000
• DS – 510,000
• Xbox 360 – 309,000
• PS3 – 203,000
• PS2 – 101,000
• PSP – 172,000

The run down on all the January numbers can be found here.

Hardware Unit Sales
Jan-09
PlayStation 2 101.2K
PlayStation 3 203.2K
PSP 172.3K
Xbox 360 309K
Wii 679.2K
Nintendo DS 510.8K

Top 10 SKU’s January 2009
Title Publisher Platform Rank # Units
WII FIT NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 1 777K
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 2 415K
MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 3 292K
LEFT 4 DEAD ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 4 243K
CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD  360 5 235K
SKATE 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 6 199K
GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD WII 7 155K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 8 135K
MARIO KART DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA 360 9 132K
LORD OF THE RINGS: CONQUEST ELECTRONIC ARTS PS3 10 113K

Dollar Sales Jan-09 Jan-08 CHG
Video Games $1.33 Billion $1.18 Billion 13%
Video Games Hardware $445.4 Million $380.3 Million 17%
Video Games Software $676.6 Million $614.7 Million 10%
Video Game Accessories $209.8 Million $188.3 Million 11%

EEDAR’s put out its NPD predictions, reckoning Wii sold a staggering 740,000 units at US retail last month.

The figure’s in stark contrast to Michael Pachter’s estimate, also released today. The Wedbush Morgan analyst said he thought 550,000 Wiis were sold in January.

EEDAR’s plumped for 210,000 and 300,000 units of PS3 and 360 respectively, also a way off Pachter’s guess at 225,000 and 275,000.

Pachter reckoned January console sales would be up 35 percent: EEDAR’s gone for 58 percent.

We’ll know who’s right on Thursday.