March NPD: Welcome to Nintendo Land

March NPD numbers were released earlier today and here’s the breakdown, re-tooled for easy viewing.

Hardware Sales

1. Wii – 721 000
2. Nintendo DS – 698 000
3. PlayStation Portable – 297 000
4. Xbox 360 – 262 000
5. PlayStation 3 – 257 000
6. PlayStation 2 – 216 000

Software Sales

1. WII  Super Smash Brothers: Brawl (Mar-08) – 2.7 million
2. 360  Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Mar-08) – 752 300
3. 360  Army of Two (Mar-08) – 606 100
4. Wii  Play w/ Remote (Feb-07) – 409 800
5. PSP  God of War: Chains of Olympus (Mar-08) – 340 500
6. PSP  Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Mar-08) – 301 600
7. WII  Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Oct-07) – 264 100
8. 360  Major League Baseball 2K8 (Mar-08) – 237 100
9. 360  Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Nov-07) – 237 000
10. PS3  Army of Two (Mar-08) – 224 900

Nearly $1 billion in software sales this month which is really surprising considering the 63% increase from last year’s March. You see that publishers? It pays to release stuff throughout the year and not just in the fourth quarter.

Nintendo is a monster. 1.4 million units of hardware in a month! Sony only managed to do 770 000 units of hardware across its consoles. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the Xbox 360 managed to edge out the PlayStation 3 for the first time in 2008 — back on top.

Software wise, Nintendo dominated the number one spot with Brawl which is well deserved. The “surprise” of the month is the appearance of PSP titles in the top 10. While it’s great to see the PSP titles in the top 10, I’m disappointed by the actual numbers themselves. I’m certain that many sales were lost thanks to piracy. These two titles deserve more.