January NPDs were released not too long ago with some shocking numbers as follows:
Hardware Numbers
- Nintendo Wii – 274,000
- PLAYSTATION 3 – 269,000
- PlayStation 2 – 264,000
- Nintendo DS – 251,000
- Xbox 360 – 230,000
- PlayStation Portable – 230,000
Software Numbers
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 330,900
- Wii Play (Wii) – 298,100
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) – 239,600
- Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 183,800
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) – 182,700
- Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 172,000
- Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) – 144,100
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) – 140,000
- Mario Party DS (DS) – 138,500
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) – 133,000
My comments and amateur analysis below.
Hardware numbers were surprising for the PS3 at face value, but there are possible explanations:
- Unexplainable, but predictable Wii shortages
- Surprising and incompetant XBOX 360 shortages
- Apparent NDS shortages
- Possible effect of the Warner Brothers Blu-ray announcement
- The PS2 sales are very impressive. Especially since the damn console still hasn’t reached the $99 MSRP point yet.
In the end, I’m impressed and surprised that the PS3 beat out the XBOX 360 for the first time ever in the United States market. I don’t believe it will continue the trend next month, though.
Software sales were surprising for me with the following:
- Super Mario Galaxy still in the top 10; I thought this title would have dropped off by now, but I guess new Wii owners are indeed buying awesome games.
- Burnout: Paradise did not debut as strongly as I thought it would, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that it debuted on January 22nd. Or perhaps the demo scared people off.
- Mario Party DS and Mario vs Sonic at the Olympic games should not have been that high. Curse the mini-games!
- PS3 software sales have not caught been great. The same goes with PSP software sales. Disappointing.
- XBOX 360 still very strong
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