September NPD: $1.27b in sales, but it's no Halo 3 launch

by Ross Miller on Oct 16th 2008 7:37PM

Under most circumstances, this month's NPD sales figures would be quite impressive, with total sales of $1.27 billion. However, last September's $1.35 billion had one looming trump card -- namely, Halo 3's launch. Year-to-date hardware sales were $497.98 million (down nine percent) and software $616.09m (down six percent). Thanks largely to the price drop (we suspect, at least), Xbox 360 had the highest increase in sales, up 78%. It took 3rd place, splitting up Nintendo's two and Sony's three consoles.

For software, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed dominated with 3 of the top 10 spots, totaling 1.16 million in unit sales -- the Xbox 360 version accounted for 52% of sales, followed by PlayStation 3 at 28%. Wii Fit also had impressive figures with 518K. Here are this month's NPD hardware sales figures:

- Wii: 687K

234K (51.66%)
- DS: 536.8K

18.5K (3.57%)
- Xbox 360: 347.2K

152K (77.87%)
- PSP: 238.1K

14.9K (-5.90%)
- PS3: 232.4K

47K (25.35%)
- PS2: 173.5K

29.4K (20.4%)

Top ten in software sales after the break.

1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Xbox 360 – 610K
2. Wii Fit w/ Balance Board - Wii – 518K
3. Rock Band 2 - Xbox 360 – 363K
4. Mario Kart w/ wheel - Wii – 353K
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - PS3 – 325K
6. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - Xbox 360 – 297K
7. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii – 243K
8. Madden NFL 09 - Xbox 360 – 224K
9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Wii – 223K
10. Madden NFL 09 - PS2 – 158K

Source

Tags: breakingnews, DS, hardware, hardware-sales, hardwaresales, hardwaresalescharts, north-america, npd, PS2, PS3, PSP, united-states, us, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (82)

YTD Worldwide sales for 360 are up compared to 2007. I don't see how you can spin that into a "decline" for the system.

Can't stop you from trying tho ;)

Dont know about that my friend it has yet to establish itself...

Halo's story line gets hot and cold ratings from the users. But GoW2 is just starting....(or Ending)

Expect it to move systems as well as the game it self to sell crazy.

Seriously.. one of the 360's main selling points was Gears of War.

miyagi,

Xbox 360 NPD sales are down 34% from last Sept. (527k). If that carries over through the holidays that could make the gains in the rest of the world irrelevant. A slow economy and higher Wii availability could both have an impact too.

Metal Geario 360

Gears 2 will be huge, but it's not Halo 3. Halo 3 was getting massive mainstream media coverage. GTA IV didn't boost 360 sales in the US, and that was bigger than Gears 2.

ultra mario- halo 3 sales would have shown up on the oct - dec figures anyways not the jan - sept figures. most consoles are sold in the holiday season and ms is going into that season with a price drop and a good game lineup. expect the 360 sales to continue to rise and continue to be ahead of the ps3.

gta4 was a multi platform game not a system seller. gears 2 is a 360 exclusive (no pc version yet) and will probably sell more copies than gta4 did on the 360 anyway. just look at gears 1 sales, from 2006 with 10 million 360 owners at the most.

ultra mario- and look for the 2009 holiday season ms has setup the release of the new halo 3 campaign. socom online only gameplay and LBP are not enough this holiday season for sony. maybe god of war 3 and ff13 versus will help greatly next year.

Anyone else think ST:TFU was blowful, what the fizzles up with the high sales?

SW:TFU, my bad.

Starwars: The Force Unleashed.

Mmm, offensive backronyms...

Now if we could only live in Consoles the economy would be set.

Results of the 360 price cut were as i figured. A solid shot in the arm, but nothing to approach Nintendo

Ahh, and Wii Music gets an A- from 1up

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3170709&p=44

Surprising. The 360 didn't sell as much as I had thought it would.

I know a couple people who bit on the $200 Arcade and I almost did but lacked the funds.

PS3 was a bit surprising as well.

Wii/DS keep slaughtering though.

Oh, and 360 has a 8:1 tie ratio now.

Despite some minor issues I really enjoyed the Force Unleashed. Its a damn good and fun game IMO. The story is really good, nice graphics and varied vistas, and the music is well...SW music, which sounds awesome in surround sound :)

I Gameflyed it and it was a great week of unleashing the force for me. I ended up enjoying it more and more as I went and learned new combos and tricks. Dont let the average review scores deter you from giving it a go, seriously. I even got kinda sad when I returned it today :(

I disagree, it definitely deserved the average reviews it got. The gameplay is very clunky, it should play far more smoothly than it does, there are times where you battle the controls more than the enemies.

The stat/combo system seems to be there to make the game feel that it has some depth, but you quickly realise that you only need to use the same x,x,y combo through-out the whole game. Many of the powers become completely obsolete as you begin to fight enemies that are immune to being thrown, etc.

The only reason to play it is for the story, which can easily be done within a day or two, and even that's almost ruined by such a cheesy/cliché/lackluster ending. You're better off reading a plot summary on Wikipedia, or just watching all the scenes on YouTube.

So even though there are more Wii's out there, third party games still sell better on the 360.

well, it depends on which third party game. A hardcore, nerd-oriented and licensed action game like SW:TFU it's kind of normal to see it sell better on the 360 IMO. But more casual games like Guitar Hero sell better on Wii and don't drop the sales as much in time. That said, i also think wii users are too busy buying mario karts and wii fits, WOW

I guess you are implying that the xbox360 is doing better? I don't see what's your point... Microsoft releases a game every couple years so I don't think you could say they are any kind of competition to third parties. Nintendo releases about 10 games in a year so they can count as real competition.

Nintendo releases 10 games a year? Damn.

Honestly it should be that nintendo remakes ten games a year. I fail to see the difference in any Mario kart game really. I'm all for good competition, but I am interested to see how it plays out with the PS/360 crowd playing some really great games this year and the Wii not having much to offer unless you haven't picked up Wii fit yet. One would think the novelty would wear off at some point. I probably sound more biased than I actually am. I am just tired of the casual game and plastic crap attachment craze that has been going on. That and I skipped breakfast.

Ok, SO, i think that it's pretty clear that the ps3 will hardly reach 360 numbers in its lifetime (10 years, riiiight) and therefore multiplatform games will continue to sell less units on Sony's console, so i guess it's bye bye to any third party game exclusivity that the ps3 might have left. That said, if things would turn even uglier for Sony, and with a little help of some MS money, they could eventually secure more exclusives and steal them from Sony. Imagine Metal Gear 5 exclusive for 360... oh, the meltdowns!

As much I love the thought of sony fanboys imploding at that news the truth of the matter is that if there is MGS5 it most likely would be a multiplatform release.

The most 360 fanboys could hope for is a time release giving us exclusivity for 6 months or so. Maybe a year.

So I'd have to buy it for the 360 instead of the PS3? Oh, the horror! The only thing I hope is that someday Microsoft and Sony have a joint venture to put an end to all you dimwitted fanboys forever.

PSP was the only one up last week, now it's the only one down? Always gotta be different!

This is NPD, not Japanese sales.

Nintendo competes with nobody and Sony and microsoft compete with each other. So by my estimations isn't Sony beating MS? The 360 has sold more than the PS3 thats true. But PSP and PS2 sales have to factor in right? Sony moves more units than MS just not with the PS3, but doesn't that still count? Just an observation. Don't go crazy on me oh wise Fanboys :p

Actually, I think Sony is being a little short-sighted by continuing such unwavering support for the PS2. They need to move some PS2 users into the next-gen. They don't need to kill it, but they need to start encouraging developers to support it less. There's a little of that, but they're still doing the same. It's good for the black ink now, but I'm afraid it will only hurt the PS3's legitimacy in the long run. How can you push the market to next-gen when you're still relying on last-gen for revenues.

God I Hate NPD for not tracking PC games. Spore and Warhammer both deserve to be on that list. In fact, Spore would be #1 and Warhammer probably 2 or 3.

"Spore realized sales of 406,000 units and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning sold 274,000, which would put them both in the top 10 list of combined console, portable, and PC games sales for the month,"

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6199537.html

your numbers are a bit off...

I doubt that Nintendo will be stopped they will go on to sell the most systems in my opinion. There is just no way the hard core gamers out number the casual gamers. Yes i am wii owner. I do love my wii.

I agree, there are more casual gamers than hardcore ones. Nintendo's success was unexpected. With that said, I've grown out of "casual" games so I will not be getting the Wii. Sales for 360 are pretty impressive with the economy and all, more Wii's available, and the fact that it's been 3 years! It's not going to stop there either, it will sell much more come this holiday season.

Lol I would love to see how they are going to fit 50gb of already compressed data onto a DL DvD. If FF 13 has to be multi disc MGS5 will be crazy as hell. Also PS3 buyers aren't really pushed by the games, they are pushed by those who want a blu-ray player, the PS3 is MUCH MORE versatile than the 360 by far. I use my 360 only for games, while I use every feature on the PS3 except web browsing. With lower cost on HD TV this holiday season there will be plenty who will buy the PS3 for the HD content. The 360 how ever will be driven mainly by the games it has to offer. While the Wii will just absolutely dominate because its more readily available, and cost efficient as well as the fact that there are 6 Billion people on the planet and a crap load of little kids that want to play the shovelware the wii has and also the rehashes of old games with a new trick (the new gimmicky controls) never the less the Wii will dominate while it is still yet to be seen how well the PS3 and 360 will do.

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September NPD: $1.27b in sales, but it's no Halo 3 launch

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