The NPD delayed the release of its monthly reports on the gaming industry because it wanted to double-check its figures. The reason? The industry as a whole posted its first positive year-to-year sales report after months of decline.
Since this year’s report was over a five-week period instead of last year’s four, the NPD ruled the difference essentially flat as a whole. But the results still stop a six-month skid that erased the industry’s label of "recession proof."
"The industry managed a modest increase over September 2008, and generated the second bestselling September on record after 2007 when Halo 3 released and sold over 3 million copies that month," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "On a unit sales basis, the industry was flat. The increase in revenues is driven by a rise in average retail prices in all categories with the exception of console hardware in which the average retail price decreased 8 percent from last September."
Though the drop in price of all three consoles surely impacted the results, the cuts caused a decrease in console revenue by six percent to $472.28 million. The PlayStation 3 won the September console war in sales with 491,800 units, but lost out overall to the Nintendo DS. The portable platform sold 524,200 units.
All three major consoles had a good sales increase however. Not just the PS3.
"All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87 percent, 33 percent, and 31 percent respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a five-week month compared to four weeks in August)," said Frazier.
On the software side of the reports, Microsoft and Bungie’s Halo 3: ODST came out on top with 2.5 million units sold worldwide. The newest addition to the Halo franchise beat out the WiiMotion Plus pack-in Wii Sports Resort with 442,900 units sold.
Here’s the full list of hardware sales along with the top ten best-selling software titles of this past month:
Hardware Sales:
Nintendo DS: 524,200
PlayStation 3: 491,800
Wii: 462,800
Xbox 360: 352,600
PSP: 190,400
PlayStation 2: 146,000
Top 10 Software Sales:
1) Halo 3: ODST, Xbox 360 (1,520,000 units)
2) Wii Sports Resort w/ Wii Motion Plus, Wii (442,900 units)
3) Madden NFL 10, Xbox 360 (289,600 units)
4) Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (258,100 units)
5) The Beatles: Rock Band, Xbox 360 (254,000 units)
6) Madden NFL 10, PS3 (246,500 units)
7) Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Xbox 360 (236,000 units)
8) Batman: Arkham Asylum, PS3 (212,500 units)
9) Guitar Hero 5, Xbox 360 (210,800 units)
10) The Beatles: Rock Band, Wii (208,600 units)
[Gamespot]
