NPD’s August software results indicate that EA and Nintendo have done well in sales thanks in part to Madden NFL 11 and Super Mario Galaxy 2, respectively. The latest Madden title is just under 2 million units sold. Nintendo also had a strong showing with several titles.
"Madden NFL '11 once again made August 'Madden Month' at retail," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The title was the best-selling game for the month combining sales of the five platforms it was released on, and bested the second best-selling game by a significant margin. Sales of this year's game were about 6 percent higher than last year's in its debut month, but interestingly, all of the gains occurred on the PS3 platform, reflecting the impact of the hardware sales momentum on corresponding software sales."
EA has five total positions in the top 20 on the list, all titles belonging to EA Sports. Madden NFL 11 took spots 1 and 2 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, selling roughly 900k respectively. Also on the list are NCAA Football 11 for PS3 and Xbox 360 and Madden NFL 11 for PS2; Madden NFL 11 for the Wii did not make it in the top 20.
"Last August, we didn't see as big of a sales gap between the first and second best-selling games," added Frazier. After Madden NFL '10 last year, we had both Wii Sports Resort, and Batman Arkham Asylum, which both sold over 500K units in August 2009. This year the top 10 games sold 3.3 million units as opposed to 4.1 million for the top 10 last year."
Nintendo, for the third month in a row, has eight titles in the top 20. Super Mario Galaxy 2 pushed back up to the 3rd spot, an increase since the July results with 124k in sales. The game has been on the list since it’s release in May.
Take-Two also had a strong showing with three slots in the top 2. Mafia 2 took the 4th and 7th slot for the Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively. This should discourage criticism concerning sales for the game. Red Dead Redemption continues to be a strong seller for the studio, as the game has remained on the list since its debut.
"Looking forward, Halo: Reach releases on 9/14 and will kick off the mega-title releases for the remainder of the year. The 360 install base is now about triple what it was when Halo 3 was launched so the potential audience for Reach is significantly larger. Between the size of the potential audience, the quality of the game previews, and the hefty marketing program behind the game, we can expect big numbers to be reported with September results," concluded Frazier.
A full list of the NPD Top 20 reads as follows:
1. Madden NFL 11 Xbox 360
2. Madden NFL 11 PS3
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 Wii
4. Mafia II Xbox 360
5. New Super Mario Bros. DS
6. New Super Mario Bros. Wii Wii
7. Mafia II PS3
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360
9. NCAA Football 11 Xbox 360
10. Wii Fit Plus Wii
11. Just Dance Wii
12. Red Dead Redemption Xbox 360
13. Pokemon SoulSilver Version DS
14. Madden NFL 11 PS2
15. NCAA Football 11 PS3
16. Wipeout: The Game Wii
17. Mario Kart Wii w/Wheel Wii
18. Dragon Quest IX DS
19. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PS3
20. Mario Kart DS DS
3 Comments
September 10, 2010
Wipeout: The Game? How did that get there? And LOL at NSMB DS and Mario Kart DS. A four year old DS platformer still in the top five and a FIVE year old DS racer still in the top 20. The only game I can think of as being similarly evergreen is the original Starcraft. Well, WoW too, I guess. But nothing console-wise.
September 10, 2010
Is this Worldwide numbers, N.A. numbers or just U.S. numbers?
September 10, 2010
NPD just reports on sales from the U.S.