September NPD: Hardware down, but Halo Reaches upward

by JC Fletcher on Oct 14th 2010 6:58PM

Welcome to the new NPD report! The agency's new reticence means we have no idea how hardware did in September -- except for the Xbox 360, which was at the top of the charts with 483,989 units sold. The NPD does report that at $383 million, total hardware sales are down 19 percent year-over-year.

We have a bit more information about software, but the format has changed for that as well -- instead of each individual version of a game (on each platform, for example) counting as one game on the list, they've been totaled. So Madden NFL 11 occupies one slot on the top ten this month instead of two.

Halo: Reach would have done well regardless of this change (it's at #1, after all, and on only one platform) but now we see games on the top ten that might have been muscled out by the Maddens -- like Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Metroid: Other M. Microsoft, never one to ignore a success story, blasted out Halo: Reach's first-month sales numbers: 3.3 million units. It notes that Reach is "only the third game this generation to surpass 3 million unit sales in the first month." The first? Yup, Halo 3.

Update: Hardware sales figures can be found here.

Embrace change after the break.

Halo: Reach – Xbox 360 – Microsoft
Madden NFL 11 – 360/PS3/PS2/Wii/PSP – EA
Dead Rising 2 – 360/PS3/PC – Capcom
NHL 11 – 360/PS3 – EA
FIFA Soccer 11 – 360/PS3/PS2/PSP/NDS – EA
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep – PSP – Square Enix
Mafia 2 – 360/PS3/PC – Take-Two
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions – PS3/360/NDS/Wii – Activision
Metroid: Other M – Wii – Nintendo
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 360/PS3/PCi – Activision

Tags: dead-rising-2, ds, madden-nfl-11, microsoft, nintendo, npd, NPD-monthly, playstation, ps3, psp, sony, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (34)

I approve of these changes.

And wow, a PSP game in the top 10.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze My thoughts exactly. But it is a pretty good game.

@TheDread

and doesnt afraid of anything

Uh..WTF NPD?! How am I supposed to load my fanboy cannon now?

Really though, I was pretty interested in the Halo Reach sales numbers. I guess we can assume it went pretty well but come on!

@AFATALERR0R

You could always load your fanboy cannon with movie ticket sales? =P

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iBjGOIbJ4Q

Joystiq already updated that one dear.

This just messes up the chart IMO. With five copies of both Madden and FIFA 11 grouped into one it really misconstrues the chart, and makes the games closer to the bottom of the list seem as though they are selling much better than they actually are. FIX IT NPD.

Having this list without the sales figures gives little to no indication about how well the titles did. Now I officially no longer care about NPD. I just liked seeing the proportion of sales among the top selling titles.

Seriously? Modern Warfare 2 has got to go. -_-

@Prboi

Especially with Black Ops coming out in a month it's surprising people are still willing to shell out $40+ for it.

Pretty sure the Xbox versions of multi platform did the best (as always) but don't the software makers want to know what system did better so they can lead skew them?

@kcswanko
They can likely still obtain the figures for fee. I'd imagine its just that they can't disclose them publicly and freely anymore.

@Premature ejaculation man - Yeah, it's probably like DVDscan (or whatever its called) for DVD's. The difference here is that there is no consumer market for the sales figures on DVD's, while there is a huge market for the video game sales numbers.

NPD's competitors (I don't even want to dignify them by naming their site) will probably see an enormous up tick in traffic, if they haven't already. Unless someone with money is behind the numbers going away, I have a feeling that the NPD will be back to business as usual by next month.

Good to see Metroid: Other M on that list. I mean, probably wouldn't have made the list if those multiplatforms weren't combined above it, but still...good to see it in the "Top 10"...

@ILT2 What? It's good to see it because the gaming industry is a business, not a charity, and publishers make decisions based on whether or not the games prove financially viable. Something like Metroid: Other M appearing in the top 10 is likely to indicate strong sales, which is likely to indicate to Nintendo that it was worth publishing something like it, which is going to lead to them making something like it in the future.

If you like a game, you should always be pleased when it does well as that means you're likely to see something like it in the future.

@ILT2 Yeah, basically what RonoccoMail said. Other M is a game that Nintendo took a chance on. Sure, one that received mixed reviews and a game that wasn't necessarily everyone's cup o' tea, but a game that many were interested in knowing how sales would end up. Granted, no numbers were attached to these sales, but if numbers were attached, and if games weren't lumped into their multiple platforms, we'd have no clue where it stood.

Regardless, I'm just glad to see it there. As a gamer, I'm glad to see all of those titles listed. There are some good games in there.

@RonnocoMail

**Cough** Alan Wake :( **Cough**

@ilduce620

Yeah I'm glad Other M did well. I really liked it, but it was far from perfect.

Hopefully it does well enough to get a sequel. I'd love to see the basic game again with some improvements over the original.

@Mayor West

Other M could use some more intricacy and nuance, to be sure. But I really feel the problems people had with the story were vastly overblown, and Id love to see more in line with this level of epic scope from nintendo again. For me, it was one of the better games Ive played this year, on any system.

What's a PCi? And how do I gets some MW2 on it?

@Tephlon It's a DSi-like version of a PC! :D

Is anyone shocked that Reach topped it??

:D

@trickybuz93

Not in the US no, but in the UK reach was knocked off the top selling spot after 1 week i beleive, so depends on what market you are from

It seems pretty dumb not to at least give the totaled number of games sold for each respective game, even if they don't break the numbers up by console.

I think this format is great for the general masses but what about us? The game nerds that read gaming blogs. I love seeing breakdowns in console vs. console title sales. I need to know how many crappy versions of Darksiders, or some other bullshit game, sold on each system. PS3 or 360? I can then choose which console audience to judge and mock. Bring me the numbers!

Only 19 comments on an NPD story an hour after it's posted?

Huh.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

we have no numbers to talk about ... and fanboys all over the globe are feeling very empty inside :(

but lets get something going anyway? Why are console sales going down year-to-year despite lower prices and newer revisions? Well I think we're pretty close to hitting the "wall" in terms of sales. We're still about a year or two away but hardware sales will just continue to shrink month to month, year to year. The era of PS2-like-lifetime sales is not going to happen, the Wii might get close but there's only so many living grandma's and grandpas that buy them.

just my .02

@BoBsS

But once we go down, doesn't it just come back up? I mean I don't see 360 sales slowing until spring next year, by then, I'm sure they'll have something to keep people buying. They always do. As for PS3, There's really only one thing they can do, special edition bundles with specially colored systems. That's where they've been really slacking. Only in Japan do they have A regular PS3, A white PS3 & a blue PS3. I think it's time they bring those colors out of Japan.

@BoBsS

Some numbers have been posted on the eurogamer comment thread about this, apparently MS and nintendo have released figures (basically half a mil sales for £60, 250k sales for wii) but not sure how accurate they are since i havn't seen a nintendo annoucement anywhere. Apparently sony are keeping quiet, which is causing everyone to point fingers at the company that wanted the numbers to stop :P

It's going to take me awhile to get used to this (if ever). I do like how multi-platorm games are bundled but I still would like to see sales numbers. I like stats and I hate to "rely" on vgchartz.

@ctg867 Or how about one of the 5 PSP games that give a reason for someone to buy a PSP.

Come on it's Kingdom Hearts. How did you NOT expect it to be there.

@ben linus

That's a screen shot from Reach????

Or Halo 2?

I say bring on NPD's competitors in the videogame sector! It doesn't have to be VGChartz. It can be anybody. The videogame industry needs no more of this cloak & dagger secrecy. Lay it out plain on the table exactly what's going on with this business.

If NPD didn't want to be public they should have never publicized their numbers to begin with. We shouldn't even know who NPD was. But now that they have assumed the role as the Billboard of the videogame industry, they have a job to do.

They STILL give out the true exhaustive details to their clients. That hasn't changed. These little numbers they give us each month is only the icing on the cake. There's so much information NOT being said in public reports it isn't funny.

But there's no reason to withdraw these public reports—which happen long after the clients read them. There is a need for a videogame industry barometer & if NPD can't handle their duties, then someone else will. If NPD wants prestige & worship from the gaming press, then it has to play ball. Soon another industry sales tracker will gather info about this industry & may in time pull away NPD's clientele.

I just can't trust an industry that chooses to be so secretive about its practices. Makes me feel something underhanded is going on.
John Lucas

Dead Rising 2

September NPD: Hardware down, but Halo Reaches upward

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:05PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:31PM TheDread said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 9:53PM philmcfail said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:06PM AFATALERR0R said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:07PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 8:31PM Frank the tank said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:07PM Epoque said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:10PM Tapejara said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:11PM Lerkero said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:12PM Prboi said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:14PM Tapejara said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:17PM kcswanko said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:45PM Premature ejaculation man said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 11:25PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:28PM ilduce620 said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 8:32PM RonnocoMail said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 8:52PM ilduce620 said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 8:57PM Cap Morgan said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 9:47PM Mayor West said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 11:53PM Pandaman said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:38PM Tephlon said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:45PM religiousjedi said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:56PM trickybuz93 said

Posted: Oct 15th 2010 4:01AM Milky1985 said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 7:57PM DrunkRaba said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 8:07PM ActionJacksonSlacks said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 8:13PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 8:36PM BoBsS said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 9:02PM Prboi said

Posted: Oct 15th 2010 4:04AM Milky1985 said

Posted: Oct 14th 2010 9:51PM Voshempa said

Posted: Oct 15th 2010 4:02AM Deathmore said

Posted: Oct 15th 2010 10:18AM Co said

Posted: Oct 15th 2010 4:01PM johnlucas said

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