Today, the NPD Group released its January sales figures, and the beginning of 2012 was not good at all. Total consumer spending on video games fell 34 percent to $750.6 million in the US. Video game hardware sales totaled only $324 million, down 38% year over year. That's the worst it's been since January 2004.
"One factor for the double digit declines in new physical software was the lack of new launches, according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "New launches in January 2011 represented 13 percent of dollar sales and new launch performance dropped 99 percent in Jan 2012. Games like Dead Space 2, Little Big Planet 2, and DC Universe Online ranked within the top ten last year."
The Xbox 360 came out on top once in sales over other consoles. "Historically, after several years in the console life cycle there is a softening of demand, but Xbox 360 continues to defy that convention," said Microsoft in a atatement.
According to MS, they sold more than 270,000 units in January, marking its thirteenth straight month at the top of the console sales list. However, Xbox 360 sales are down 29% from last year due to the low amount of games released in January for the system. As the Xbox 360 held 49% of the console hardware sales share, this means that the Wii and PlayStation 3 sold 281,000 combined units, a huge drop from their numbers last year at this time.
Could the bad sales be due to the lack of games, the fact that so many people already have the hardware now, the possibility that many consumers were waiting for the announcement of new consoles at CES 2012, or something else?
Because everything is better with charts, enjoy this chart of the best selling games and a breakdown of January's sales numbers.
JANUARY 2012 US GAME SALES
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total retail sales: $750.6 million (-34%)
Non-PC hardware: $199.5 million (-38%)
Non-PC software: $355.9 million (-38%)
Total software: $379.6 million (-37%)
Accessories: $195.2 million (-18%)
TOP 10 GAMES FOR JANUARY 2011
Title (Platforms) - Publisher
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Activision
2. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3) - Ubisoft
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC) - Bethesda Softworks
4. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC) - Take-Two
5. Battlefield 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - EA
6. Madden NFL 12 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) - EA
7. Mario Kart 7 (3DS) - Nintendo
8. Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (360, PS3, Wii, 3DS, PC) - Activision Blizzard
9. Zumba Fitness 2 (Wii) - Majesco
10. Saints Row: The Third (360, PS3, PC) - THQ
'Fess up, did you buy a console in January, and if so, which one did you buy?
Comments
Displaying 1–16 of 16
scorpian876
Honestly the reason the X-Box 360 sales better because of the free repair warranty,but it sucks that you have to pay for online gaming and there are more people in America. The Play Station 3 is free to play online ,the down side is that you have to pay for the dreaded yellow ring of death and the Play Station last 2 years too,I know this because I am on my third Play Station 3,but yeah if Sony starts making more exclusive game titles for the console,Sony may get more sales.Total PS3 software sales 64,205,011 is decent enough.
orangecrow
Silent Hill HD delay, is why no money was gained from me.
DPsx72
DPsx72's comment is abusive and has been removed.
AmericanKing01
Between Skyrim and CoD multiplayer no one needs new games, but that will change with ME3.
lucidity
http://www.vgchartz.com/articl e/88795/the-big-three-shipment -update-through-december-2011/
Forgot to show the address for the manufacturers shipped figures.
kiohto
nothing has come out. except for Soul Caliber V and RE for the 3DS, its been a pretty weak start to the year. The Vita doesnt even come out for another 2 weeks, so what is there to sell?
KTXtheGreat
sales are down because there were no good games in January good games start coming out later doing the year
DPsx72 ShowHide(7 Replies)
DPsx72's comment is abusive and has been removed.
snawing
I just to buy games all the time, but then i took a skyrim to the ps3.
BigBadBOOM
Lots of people seemingly missing the fact that the story is not that sales are down in Jan. Its that sales are down in Jan compared to last Jan.
Whats it all point to if the trend continues? New hardware sooner rather than later!
yankeerob
Not shocking at all. People are broke after the holidays. Gaming corps. just have to wait until people get their tax refunds and sales will go up.
nighthawk282
Not really surprising, given how much came out at the end of last year, and how little new software has been released so far. If this were to continue into the next couple of months, then there might be cause for concern in the industry, but right now, I think these figures are understandable.
dz99ls
Shocking..... seriously supprised?
lowkevmic
Of course game sales went down in January. Everyone is still trying to bounce back from all the money spent during Christmas, and nothing really spectacular comes out until February or March.
Zzanzabar
I want to buy the Vita but it is just not in my budget at the moment (I know it doesn't count as a console even though it costs as much). I already own the 3 major consoles so I guess I fall into the category of already owning a console(s).
lucidity
Interesting start to 2012
A lot of ppl whine that these are North American figures, as it turns out some worldwide figures have been released.
According to the independently audited financial statements, in 2011:
Nintendo shipped 10.33m Wii
Sony shipped 14.1m PS3
MS shipped 14.9m 360 s
VGchartz has tallied the 2011 software top 100
http://www.vgchartz.com/year ly/2011/Global/
Interesting because a consoles entire library has the opportunity to appear on the list if the game sells well, not just 2011 games.
Total PS3 titles 31
Total 360 titles 31 not including Kinect Adventures
Total PS3 software sales 64,205,011
Total 360 software sales 71,812,137 not including KA
Games that sold better on PS3 10
Games that sold better on 360 17
Also interesting is that only 1 "Move" game is on the list, Sports champions with just over 1m in sales, while several Kinect games, not including Kinet Adventures, totaling around 13m sales.
Displaying 1–16 of 16
Add a Comment