In September software sales and overall industry totals were up slightly after five months of decline. Well, October saw the game industry dive right back into the red, according to the latest NPD video game data just received by IndustryGamers. Total October game industry sales fell 19% to $1.07 billion, while software was down 18% to $572.73 million and hardware was down 23% to $380.74 million, despite the recent price cuts to consoles. Even the accessories category fell 2% to $118.88 million. The net result is that through 10 months of 2009, overall sales are tracking behind 13% and it's incredibly unlikely for the industry to see year-over-year gains now.
The big winner in October was Nintendo, which reclaimed the top console position with the Wii, which sold 506.9K units. The DS handheld was close behind with 457.6K units. After selling close to 500K units in September, the PS3 came back down to a still respectable 320.6K units sold. Xbox 360 sold about 70,000 fewer than PS3 with its 249.7K units sold (a month-over-month decline of over 100K). Rounding out hardware was the PSP and PS2 at 174.6K and 117.8K, respectively.
In terms of software, as you might have guessed, Uncharted 2 was the top seller with 537K copies sold in the U.S. Sony has now reportedly indicated that the game has sold 1 million units (which we believe is a global number). Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus and 2K Games' Borderlands also put up solid first-month numbers. Check out the top 10 list (ranked by units) below.
Next page: We chat with NPD's Anita Frazier who sheds some more light on the data...
2 Comments
10 months ago
I wouldn't call those numbers "terrible." There's a reason so many analysts think that Modern Warfare 2 gamers spend so much money, they all hold onto it for MW2 and games like it. I'm actually really surprised at Borderlands.
Microsoft has horrible timing with their racer releases. PGR4 was sent to die, but Forza 3 is doing well because it's Forza. With 2010 as packed as it is, I'm not sure what slot would've worked best for it. Q2 2010 would've been a safer bet. I personally equate Fall for bigger shooter purchases than racers. Forza 2 made a wave with a relatively quiet summer season.
Uncharted 2 deserves far more sales than it's going to get, and hopefully it will win GOTY by the Academy of Arts & Sciences.
As far as hardware is concerned I think they're all doing reasonably well, even with the 360 bringing up the rear. It has a community of gamers which support game purchases which is ultimately what MS wants. Sony may be bridging the gap in the HW department but game sales is a completely different story.
10 months ago
Well, as the first month of the all-important Q4, being down 19% is not good. I agree about Uncharted 2. I love that game; it's sadly limited by being exclusive to PS3. It definitely deserves a GotY award.
Post a Comment
Login With IndustryGamers
Create an account, it literally takes like 5 seconds and you'll never have to do it again.
Login / Register
Login With Facebook
Have a Facebook account? Just hit the button and you can comment on our site!