NPD Analysis

LA Noire, Brink Top May Software Charts

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Posted June 14, 2011 - By Stephen Johnson

Interview: L.A. Noire's Patrick Fischler Spills The Beans On Playing Mickey Cohen

The industry analysts at the NPD Group have released the video game sales numbers for May 2011, and the biggest selling game of the month was (insert drumroll here): LA Noire. Rockstar's fedora-simulator beat out Brink for the the top slot, as well as outselling Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat. Call of Duty: Black Ops is still on the best-seller chart, in spite of having been released back in November.

Overall, May was a crappy month for video games, sales-wise. This was the lowest month of sales of physical game packages since October of 2006, but the software numbers are a bit skewed by the fact that the NPD Group doesn't include digital distribution, a growing market segment.

Tags: NPD Analysis, PlayStation 3, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

NPD Hardware Sales For April: Microsoft Wins The Console Wars In Light of PSN Security Breach

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Posted May 12, 2011 - By Leah Jackson

Is That An Xbox 360 Slim In Your Pocket...

According to industry analysts at the NPD Group, the winner of the console wars for April was the Xbox 360 in terms of unit sales, followed by the Nintendo 3DS. Plus, regardless of the whole PlayStation Network security breach the PlayStation 3 saw in increase in unit sales for April 2010.

Total hardware sales for April equaled a massive $930.7 million, up 21% from last year's April total of $771.5 million.

The Xbox 360 has been the top selling console in the United States for 10 out of the 11 past months and is the best selling console of 2011 according to Microsoft who promises to have a strong E3 showing later on in June.

Tags: Nintendo DS, NPD Analysis, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

Mortal Kombat Tops April NPD Software Sales; SOCOM 4 Fails To Make The List

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Posted May 12, 2011 - By Nikole Zivalich

Exclusives put PS3 ahead this week: Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, SOCOM 4

April was a busy month for gamers with games like Mortal Kombat, Portal 2 and SOCOM 4. The numbers are in and thanks to the NPD Group we can rest assured that game sales have gone up in both units and profit since last year. The NPD Group gathered data on "physical retail sales." This means digital distribution of games doesn't get counted when coming up with these stats. If downloads were counted, do you think Portal 2 would be higher on the list?

Keep reading to find out which games sold the most.

Tags: NPD Analysis, Videogames

Console Sales Up Across The Board, Nintendo 3DS Has A Successful Launch: March NPD Analysis Results

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Posted April 14, 2011 - By Leah Jackson

Nintendo 3DS

The NPD Group has announced March's hardware sales and according the analysis the total video game hardware numbers have increased by 12% over March 2010 numbers. Way to go, gamers! Overall the hardware sales made a whopping $494.5 million dollars compared to last year's $440.6 million and the big news is that the Nintendo 3DS had a very successful launch, even better than the Nintendo DS had. Read on for the full hardware analysis.

Tags: NPD Analysis, PC Gaming, PlayStation 3, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

NPD: Software Sales Down In March; Pokemon, Homefront Top Charts

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Posted April 14, 2011 - By Stephen Johnson

Analysis: August 2009 Hardware Sales -- Price Cuts Help, But Wii Still On Top

According to industry analysts at the NPD Group, videogame software sales were down 16 percent in March 2011, compared to March 2010's sales. Overall, the industry made $735.4 million through software sales in March, compared to $875.7MM in March 2010. These numbers represent physical sales of new software, not digital format sales.

"New physical retail software sales declined significantly," the NPD Group said today in a statement. "Software sales last year were marked by several marquee titles including Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and God of War III, which were all million plus unit sellers in March 2010."

Tags: Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, NPD Analysis, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

Call of Duty: Black Ops Top Selling Game In History

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Posted March 10, 2011 - By Stephen Johnson

Call of Duty: Black Ops Gets Double XP Weekend

According to the video game industry analysts at the NPD Group, Call of Duty: Black Ops is now the top-selling video game ever released, pushing Wii Play down to number two in history. COD: Blops was the top-charting game in February, as it has been every month since it was released back in November.

There were fewer new game releases in February 2011 vs. February 2010, but those new releases were more productive, selling more on average than the new releases did last year.

VIDEO: Call of Duty: Black Ops "First Strike" Trailer

The "winning" console of the month? The Xbox 360 which had its biggest non-holiday sales month ever, surpassing September 2007 when Halo 3 launched. The 250 GB system bundled with the Kinect sensor was one of the drivers of the increase in average selling price among console hardware. All three major console systems boasted a unit sales increase over last February, though.

Tags: NPD Analysis, Videogames

Console Wars: 360 Proclaims January Sales Victory

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Posted February 18, 2011 - By Stephen Johnson

Microsoft: Gamers Gave Us The Right To Disable Unauthorized Devices

Microsoft has looked at January's NPD numbers and proclaimed the Xbox 360 the winning console. Here are the raw numbers:

Xbox 360 sold 381,000 units in January, up 48,000 units year-over-year.

Xbox 360 is the only console platform to show year-over-year growth in January at 15 percent.

Total retail spend on Xbox 360 topped $551 million, making it the top selling console platform for the 10th month in a row.

During the month of January, four of the top ten console game titles were for Xbox 360 including: “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” “Dead Space 2,”“Dance Central,” and “Kinect Sports.”

Overall, though, according to the NPD group total video game hardware sales are down 8% from last January. Negative numbers seem bad, but when you consider how long it's been since any brand-new console has appeared, it's pretty amazing that sales have remained as high as they have.

Tags: NPD Analysis, Videogames

Call of Duty: Black Ops: Still At Top Of Charts In January; Beats Dead Space 2, LittleBigPlanet 2

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Posted February 17, 2011 - By Stephen Johnson

NPD

The NPD Group's video game sales numbers for January are in, and Call of Duty: Black Ops was the top selling game of the month. Activision's shooter beat out Just Dance 2, Dead Space 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2 (as well as every other video game on earth) in terms of cross-platform worldwide sales.

The top ten list is below the "Read More" tag.

Tags: NPD Analysis, Videogames

Video Game Hardware Sales Down 13 percent In 2010; Nintendo, Microsoft Post Sales Records

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Posted January 14, 2011 - By Jake Gaskill

Console Check-in

Research firm NPD Group reports video game hardware sales generated $6.29 billion in 2010, down 13 percent compared to 2009. Console sales for December came in $1.84 billion, down 16 percent over the previous year as well. Despite the declines, Microsoft and Nintendo both set company and industry sales records for the year.

Tags: Nintendo DS, NPD Analysis, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

NPD Group: Total 2010 Game Software Sales Flat Compared To 2009

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Posted January 13, 2011 - By Stephen Johnson

NPD Group Delays September 2009 Sales Data Until Next Monday According to the NPD Group sales of video games in 2010 were flat compared to 2009 totals. NPD estimates that consumers spent between $15.4 to $15.6 billion on all video game content, not including hardware. That comprises gaming content sales via all monetization methods, including new physical video and PC games, used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile game apps.

The best-selling game for the month of December, and for the year, was Call of Duty: Black Ops. It sold more than 12 million units across all platforms, which is more than twice as many as the second best-selling title of the year, Madden NFL '11.

Tags: NPD Analysis, Videogames

Nintendo Sells 2.7 Million Hardware Units In November

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Posted December 10, 2010 - By Nikole Zivalich

November has been a good month for Nintendo. They have sold 2.7 million Wii and DS systems last month alone. That number breaks down to 1.2 million Wiis and 1.5 million Nintendo DS units. 600,000 of those Wiis were sold during the week of Black Friday, 50,000 more than last year's Thanksgiving holiday. Despite previous reports that the Wii sales were dwindling, Nintendo still seems to print money. Is the Wii or DS on your Christmas list this year?

Tags: Nintendo DS, NPD Analysis, Videogames, Wii

Call of Duty: Black Ops, Xbox 360 Top Sales Charts For November

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Posted December 9, 2010 - By Jake Gaskill

Over 1 Million More People Playing Call of Duty: Black Ops On 360 Than PS3

Activision, Nintendo, and Microsoft were the big winners for November according to the last sales figures provided by research firm NPD Group. Treyarch’s ubiquitous shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops took the top spot for software sales, while the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the sixth consecutive month, securing its position as the best-selling console in the U.S. for 2010.

Tags: Kinect, Nintendo DS, NPD Analysis, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Move, PlayStation Portable, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

Video Game Sales Deal NBA 2K11 A Slam Dunk While Bethesda Wins Big With Fallout New Vegas

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Posted November 16, 2010 - By Eric Eckstein

NBA 2K11 Preview

NBA 2K11 and Fallout: New Vegas owned the number one and number two spots last month, as the NPD Group released their monthly report on sales data for October. While the group no longer releases figures for the top consoles and games, there is some interesting information to glean from the report in regards to the apparent success of PlayStation Move, and more importantly what made the Top 10 list and what didn't.

Tags: Nintendo DS, NPD Analysis, PC Gaming, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Move, PlayStation Portable, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

Halo: Reach, 360 Top September 2010 Sales Charts, Overall Game Sales Down

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Posted October 15, 2010 - By Jake Gaskill

Halo: Reach Tip of the Spear

For the fourth consecutive month, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 took the top spot in hardware sales, selling 484,000 units in September, an increase of 37 percent over the previous year, making it the best month for 360 sales so far in 2010.

Bungie’s Halo: Reach was, unsurprisingly, the best selling title in September with 3.3 million units sold, not counting those included in the various Reach/360 bundles. Reach is just the third 360 game to pass the 3 million mark in its launch month; the first was Halo 3, and the second was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Tags: Nintendo DS, NPD Analysis, PC Gaming, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Move, PlayStation Portable, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

Video Game Sales Down 10% In August; Madden NFL 11, Xbox 360 Take Top Spots

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Posted September 9, 2010 - By Jake Gaskill

Madden NFL 11

Industry financial firm NPD have released their hardware and software sales figures for August 2010, and despite the Xbox 360 taking the top spot for console sales for the third consecutive month, it was the weakest August for sales since 2006. However, as expected, EA moved almost 2 million units of the latest installment of the publisher’s perennial August champion, Madden NFL 11, which actually bumped off EA's other football franchise, NCAA Football 11, from the top two spots.

Video Game Software Sales, August 2010