September NPD: Obviously Destined to Sell Tons

by JC Fletcher on Oct 19th 2009 8:10PM

The new, lighter (in both price and weight!) PS3 continues to enjoy renewed sales in its second month beating out every console except for the invincible DS -- and the PS3 got pretty close to that impossible victory. The PS3's sales more than doubled in the last month! In fact, just about everything enjoyed a boost in September, with all the home consoles benefiting from recent price drops, and the PSP launching new hardware (NPD's September sales period ran through October 3). The only "loser" is the DS, which fell in total sales, but still managed to sell more than anything else.

In software (see the chart after the break), unsurprisingly strong debuts took place for both games with Halo on the box and games with Mario on the box. In fact, strong is a bit of an understatement for ODST's 1.52 million units sold. It's not quite 3.3 million units, but for a presumably lower-cost spinoff using an existing engine, it'll do.

In a weird bit of cross-platform fickleness, The Beatles: Rock Band debuted in the top 10 for Xbox and Wii, but not PS3 -- while Batman: Arkham Asylum's PS3 version made a second appearance in the top 10 to the exclusion of the Xbox.

-DS: 524K

29K (-5%)
-PS3: 492K

282K (+134%)
-Wii: 463K

186K (+67%)
-360: 353K

138K (+64%)
-PSP: 190K

50K (+36%)
-PS2: 146K

40K (+38%)

Check out the software sales chart after the break.

Halo 3: ODST - 360 - Microsoft - 1.52m
Wii Sports Resort (w/ Wii Motion Plus) - Wii - Nintendo - 443K
Madden NFL 10 - 360 - EA - 290K
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - DS - Nintendo - 258K
The Beatles: Rock Band - 360 - EA - 254K
Madden NFL 10 - PS3 - EA - 247K
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 -360 - Activision - 236K
Batman: Arkham Asylum - PS3 -Eidos - 213K
Guitar Hero 5 - 360 - Activision - 211K
The Beatles: Rock Band - Wii - EA - 209K

Tags: batman-arkham-asylum, DS, halo-3-odst, Microsoft, Nintendo, npd, npd-monthly, the-beatles-rock-band, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (147)

I'm happy for the Bat.

and justin on the podcast said odst would sell like 100k units. lol

It did sell 100k units. And an extra 1.42 million to boot.

Also, I'm pretty sure Justin was being sarcastic.

@steve

didn't seem so

Then you're an idiot.

lol at the stupid americans buying the dlc they already got with 2 hours of gameplay with the same shit just with neon light lmao

I think the interesting stat this month is Beatles selling more than GH5.

Yeah, Beatles is selling more, but is it fun as hell?

Hell is not fun, but it could be if it wasn't made by Activision.

Yes, yes it is.
I've even had people who weren't big fans of The Beatles come over and enjoy the hell out of it. The dreamscapes are stunning, yeah the gameplay isn't going to differ much from any other rhythm game, but for fans of The Beatles this is amazing. You unlock rare footage, pictures and more by 5 starring songs, there are achievements for the people who are into those and let's not forget.. IT'S A GAME FULL OF BEATLES MUSIC!

I didn't bother with GH5, even though there are a couple of songs I'd like, cause I know in a month they'll stop supporting it with DLC anyways.

PS3 deserves it this holiday. Good job to Sony even though it only took em 3 years for captain obvious to slap them.

lol ya...

PS3 deserves it this holiday. Good job to Sony even though it only took em 3 years for them to reduce production cost

*fixed

Sony has been struggling these past few years. They havent been in the black since they launched the PS3, right?

Id like to see them do well simply for the sake of keeping the competition up.

sony still didnt do anything here. so theyre selling a few more units than usual, but they still lose money on all those units and CANT SELL SOFTWARE. most of these buyers are still people looking for a cheap bluray player, and this has been an ongoing problem for them since releasing the console. They are in the hole billions and will never make up for the investment because they cant sell their titles.

Actually Sony has been making a profit on each unit sold for almost all of 2009.

@johnny
Source please?

@firelord

Couple of things:

http://www.totalvideogames.com/PlayStation-3/news/PS3-Manufacturing-Costs-Reduced-By-70-14439.html

You can clearly see the correlation between a reduction in manufacturing costs and the price drop. The company line was they weren't dropping the price until they achieved profitability.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/698657/sony-losing-money-on-each-ps3-slim-sold.html

This article states Kaz Hirai saying Sony loses (about $40) on each PS3 Slim sold but that the platform itself is profitable (revenue from PSN, controllers etc) ... looks to me that money lost on each box is from licensing of components, shipping materials and other cost not built into the cost of manufacturing if we are to believe the financial report in the first link.

Interestingly enough I sort of had my wires crossed with the profitability and cost reduction ... they still lose money on each box they sell ... but they're well on their way probably by Spring of next year to be profitable on the end user purchase of the box itself not just the platform as a whole.

The math worked out especially when the price was still $399 ... so actually it probably was profitable up until they did the price drop.

Actually, Johhnyboy... Sony still operates at a loss with even the Slim. From Kaz' Hirai himself. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2009/gb20090925_707996.htm

Actually, Johnnyboy... Sony still operates at a loss with even the Slim. From Kaz' Hirai himself. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2009/gb20090925_707996.htm

Actually, Johnnyboy... Sony still loses money on every system including the slim. From Kaz Hirai himself. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2009/gb20090925_707996.htm

I never posted 3 times, I swear.

Wow Abi, Did you even read Johnny's post? He clearly stated what you so retardedly stated 3 times. Why all three of your comments arnt whited out baffles me.

@abi

If you took the time to read my reply in it's entirety you'd see I linked to the same article and discussed what you just mentioned.

360 was last of the big 3 in hardware sales, but still took the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th spots on the software sales. Literally every other sales spot.

Nice.

"Don't worry, in good time, PS3 software will be selling just as much"

Is that going to happen before or after they unlock the 4D capabilities? He brings up a valid point, ps3 software never has and still doesn't sell that well.

I sincerely hope everyone that calls an Xbox 360 "FAILbox" (and similar terms for the other consoles) catches something fierce and dies.

Grow up, every console has their pros and cons and that's the way it is. You prefer chocolate chip cookies, someone else prefers fucking snickerdoodles. Fuck off.

FUCK YOU I LOVE SNIKERDOODLES

Really? I mean, really guys? So desperate for a flamewar that we are latching onto this?

Dont blame me, jesus. Was just trying to be happy for the console I own, and yeah, it is kind of impressive that the last place in hardware was the first place in software.

Not my fault
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QyYaPWasos

Oh gee, I'm so surprised to see you two FAILBOX goons reply here...

We'll see in October, Tmac. You'll be eating your words and I'll make sure to bring it up next month.

Wiizer, I enjoy picking at butt acne more than I do reading your posts. You are the worst kind of fanboy, one that doesnt care about anything but FLAME ON! SOMEONE SAID SOMETHING I DISAGREE WITH ON THE INTERNET! THEY MUST DIE NOW!

Wiizer, stop being such an obvious fanboy. You look silly.

In Europe the software sales are pretty even, so why don't you go jerk off on that?

Wiizer, you do know that little time where you and all those other sony tools took over this site's over now right? They all either disappeared or stopped being assholes. You should follow them.

Look. Wiizer has derailed this, but to get back to a serious reply software sales are obviously mainly dependant on total install base - as such a month - or even 6 of good hardware sales aren't going to move much on the software sales. As such R is stating the obvious, and I'd agree he is a fanboy - the only reason to state it the way he did is in an attempt to belittle the hardware sales. Well that or being too stupid to figure out how those things are connected, but I really don't think so :p

Wiizer dont waste your time R is a dedicated fanboy just look at the way he spins, just move on

what's a snickerdoodle?

It's a delicious cookie;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snickerdoodle

THE MOST DELICIOUS KIND EVER

Good lord, Joystiq, how many times, in how many different posts, are you going to let this fanboy say failbox before you finally ban him?

Hey, I take offense at being labeled as a Sony tool. D:

Anyway. The report covers September. It is now October and I'm honestly curious about how well Uncharted 2 and Demon's Souls are doing. Also, when did Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 come out?

Scribblenauts helped to keep the DS on Top...PS3 still the #1 console tho...but for how long is anyones guess....good to see Arkham Asylum doing the numbers its doing on PS3...hell if it does it again it might sell more on PS3 than on 360....Beatles:RB sold more on Wii than PS3?? damn....

"Scribblenauts helped to keep the DS on Top"

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - DS - Nintendo - 258K

I don't see Scribblenauts anywhere up there...

Wii has a much higher install base. How is that not surprising. Especially with the Beatles!

THE BEATLES

Mario & Luigi games are awesome. Just wanted to say it.

Why are you downvoting Chris? It's because he's black isn't it?????

Everyone upvote chris before we all get charged with a hate crime.

did i miss his fantom downvotes again? damn...

I leave to watch house...and I miss sumin??

Leaked numbers show Scribblenauts sold 191k. Those are damn good numbers for a new IP on the DS.

What's that? The Beatles: Rock Band out sold GH5?

:)

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September NPD: Obviously Destined to Sell Tons

Reader Comments (147)

Posted: Oct 19th 2009 8:15PM Sherlock Homey said

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