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August 2009 NPD Sales - Xbox 360 and Batman Do Wellby Eric Bush
August video game hardware sales were, like most of 2009, down from the previous year. But at least PlayStation 3 sales were up considerably from the month prior, selling almost twice the amount thanks to a mid-month price drop. According to the NPD Group, Sony sold 210,000 PlayStation 3s in the U.S. last month. With a $100 drop taking effect at some retailers as early as August 18th, that likely translates to a price conscious boost in sales. The Xbox 360, which also experienced a late August drop, got a minor boost.
Hardware: In fact, every platform, with the exception of the PlayStation 2, saw a rise in sales, but it was the PS3's that stands out from the pack. Leading that pack, however, was the Nintendo DS, which more than half a million units in August, DS Lite and DSi combined. Overall, though, it was bad news for the industry, which saw its sixth consecutive month-to-month decline. Total hardware spend for August was $297.60 million, according to the NPD Group. That's down from $395.34 million from August 2008.
Nintendo DS - 552,900
Wii - 277,400
Xbox 360 - 215,400
PlayStation 3 - 210,000
PSP - 140,300
PlayStation 2 - 105,900
Software: The overall August 2009 top-10 software sales figures were as follows:
01. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) - 928,000
02. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 754,000
03. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) - 665,000
04. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) - 303,000
05. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) - 290,000
06. Madden NFL 10 (PS2) - 160,000
07. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) - 130,000
08. Wii Fit (Wii) - 128,000
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 120,000
10. Fossil Fighters (DS) - 92,000
All told, U.S. game buyers snapped up $470.32 million in games last month, a 15% decline from August of 2008. Here's NPD analyst Anita Frazier with some silver lining. "The PS3 was the only platform to realize a year-over-year increase in total software sales and this is reflected in the top 10 list for the month which includes two PS3 games," says Frazier. It should be an interesting September, when we can see how the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 price drops affected sales of each platform over the course of an entire month.
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