Beatles: Rock Band Tops Guitar Hero 5 in U.S. Sales

Following the release of the September NPD sales data, we followed up with NPD to get the first-month tally on the "battle of the bands." As it turns out, Harmonix and MTV Games did indeed win this round with The Beatles: Rock Band, which sold 595,000 units compared to 499,000 units for Activision's Guitar Hero 5.

Activision's Guitar Hero franchise has historically had the advantage when it comes to both mind share and market share, but The Beatles as a rock phenomenon is so huge that Beatlemania undoubtedly gave MTV Games the boost it was looking for. It also helps that MTV pulled off some great mainstream marketing with Wii-like success.

"The Beatles: Rock Band achieved this level of success with an average retail price premium of 130% to the average retail price for software overall.  The sales of Rock Band and Guitar Hero led the music/dance genre to a 72% dollar sales increase over September 2008," noted NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

Overall, Activision remains very confident in Guitar Hero of course. With three downloadable albums coming to The Beatles: Rock Band, however, this is one battle that's likely to stay very competitive for some time.

Update: MTV Games has now issued a release to stress their position as the publisher of the #1 music game in September. A spokesperson stressed, "It’s important to note that the Rock Band brand is less than two years old. The closest music game competitor franchise is four years old with the first two versions of the franchise developed by Harmonix, the premiere music game development in the world, and originally marketed by MTV. Therefore, it is misleading to compare The Beatles: Rock Band or Rock Band franchise sales to an overall franchise number from the leading music-game competitor." [Note: underscore was MTV's]

“We’ve heard countless stories about how The Beatles: Rock Band has inspired and brought friends, families and even complete strangers together,” commented Scott Guthrie, EVP and President, MTV Games.  “The overwhelmingly positive reaction by music fans, hardcore gamers, critics, retailers, young and old alike, has been extremely gratifying.  The game was a labor of love for the teams at Apple Corps, MTV Games and Harmonix and seeing it resonate across generations the world over is truly priceless.”