After a last minute delay last week, The NPD Group today released its video game sales data for the month of September. Following five consecutive months of decline, total industry sales were just barely up (1% increase) year-over-year to $1.28 billion. Software was up 5% to $649.32 million, while hardware was down 6% to $472.28 million. Accessories, driven by Wii MotionPlus and Wii Remote sales, were up 2% to $157.33 million.

In terms of hardware, PS3 was the top selling console with 491.8K units sold. Nintendo's Wii wasn't that far behind with 462.8K units, followed by Xbox 360 with 352.6K units. The top selling piece of hardware, however, remains the Nintendo DS with 524.2K units; the DS has topped hardware for six consecutive months. PSP and PS2 meanwhile sold 190.4K and 146K units, respectively. It's pretty clear that PS3 got a huge lift from the price drop.

In a nutshell, The Beatles is a name to be reckoned with, and price drops are a powerful tool to world domination.

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PlayStation 2 108K
PlayStation 3 121.8K
PSP 122.8K
Xbox 360 202.9K
Wii 252.5K
Nintendo DS 538.9K


Wii SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS (WII) 508.2K
NCAA FOOTBALL 10 (360) 376.5K
NCAA FOOTBALL 10 (PS3) 237.4K
WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD* (WII) 164.3K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL (WII) 156.6K
MARIO KART DS (NDS) 132.2K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION (NDS) 116.4K
FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 (360) 116.4K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS (NDS) 101.8K
EA SPORTS ACTIVE BUNDLE (WII) 96.8K

(*includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

Wow, what an amzing feat for Wii Sports Resort considering it's been out for only half a month, then again it's not pulling Brawl release numbers. It actually almost feels good knowing only 2 games that made the top ten were on non-Nintendo platforms, and for those wondering, no, Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros and Pokemon are NOT casual titles. I consider myself a hardcore Pokemon fan.

Here's an analysis:

The U.S. video games industry declined for the fifth consecutive month, bringing year-to-date sales to $8.16 billion, down 14% from the same time period last year.

In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11% (or more) higher than the last five months of last year.

While year-to-date results are weak, there are some big titles set to be released over the next several months, including Madden this month, which should help spur sales. The worst comps should be behind us, and looking beyond August we have The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST, and of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to look forward to.


Hardware sales have slowed considerably on nearly every platform. The Xbox 360 is the only console system showing a unit sales increase year-to-date, while the NDS has the highest sales of all hardware platforms both for the month, and year-to-date.


NCAA Football 10 was the top selling game for the month, with combined sales of 689K units across all platforms.

Wii Sports Resort was the top-selling software SKU for the month with 508K units sold with a 2.5% attach rate to the hardware install base.

Of all genres, the music/dance genre has suffered the greatest declines this year, with nearly $390 million less revenues than the same time period last year. -Anita Frazier

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