Numbers tend to leak out slowly now so I'll update the op when they do.
NPD Group data for November is out, and it’s good news for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console.
The market research firm puts the Xbox 360 console in the number 1 spot in the US for the sixth month in a row. According to the data, Microsoft sold 1.4 million units during the month of November, compared with 325,000 in the previous month.
The figures also show that the Xbox 360 console attracted 50% of the spend on gaming consoles during that month.
The release of the Kinect, which sold 2.5 million units in 25 days, has certainly been good for sales, and it looks like the Xbox 360 will dominate sales over the holidays.
The latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops had a record-setting launch in November selling 8.4 million copies in the U.S., already cracking the top 10 best-selling games of all time (No. 7), according to the latest sales report by market tracking firm The NPD Group.
Released on Nov. 9, Black Ops accounted for 25% of all video game software units sold in the month of November, said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. That helped the video game industry to its second straight month of increased software sales. Overall, sales of games totalled $1.46 billion, up 4% over November 2009.
Combined sales of games, hardware and accessories approached $3 billion ($2.95 billion), up 9% over November 2009. "November sales represent the best November on record in terms of new physical retail sales," Frazier said. "It bests November 2008 by roughly $30 million, and that time frame was at the height of the music/dance genre sales. The November rebound could lead to 2010 sales that equal that of 2009. Based on typical seasonality trends, new physical retail sales should come in between $18.8B-$19.6B," Frazier said. "Gains in November offset a good portion of the year-to-date declines."
Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC)
01. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, PC, NDS) ACTIVISION BLIZZARD ** - 8.4 Million
02. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (360, PS3) UBISOFT ** - 1.14 Million
03. Just Dance 2 (Wii) UBISOFT
04. Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) ELECTRONIC ARTS
05. Fable III (360) MICROSOFT**
06. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) NINTENDO - 430.5K
07. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3, 360, Wii, PC) ELECTRONIC ARTS - 417K
08. Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) SONY** - 400K
09. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP,PC) TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
10. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) NINTENDO**
Hardware:
Nintendo DS: 1.5 Million (-11.8%)
Xbox 360: 1.4 Million (+70.8%)
Wii: 1.2 Million (-4.8%)
PS3: 530k (-25%)
uDraw - 190k
Other November NPD factoids:
--The Music/Dance genre increased 38% in unit sales over last November fueled by Just Dance 2 and Dance Central.
-- The Xbox 360 was the best-selling console hardware system for the month, with a 68% increase over last November.
-- The Nintendo DS was the best-selling system of the month with the new red model providing the most sales and the white, lower-priced model at No. 2. "It appears the DS attracted two pockets of consumers: those looking for a unique limited-edition product and those looking for value," Frazier said.
-- November marks the sixth consecutive month Xbox 360 leads video game consoles in sales, with 1.37 million units sold.
-- Xbox 360 is the only console to show double digit year-to-date growth at 42%, making it the fastest-growing console in 2010.
-- 50% of spending at retail this November (for current generation consoles) was on the Xbox 360 platform.
-- During the month of November, four of the top ten console game titles were for Xbox 360 including: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fable III, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Halo: Reach.
-- Dance Central, Harmonix's full-body dance title for Kinect, cha-cha-chinged with sales in November. According to NPD, the game was #11 in overall sales for the month and the top-selling Kinect game as a SKU. Of course, by units, Kinect Adventures moved the most copies, as it was bundled with the peripheral, which sold over 2.5 million units globally in the month of November. Although NPD generally no longer shares specific software sales, we were told by the company that Kinect Sports and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved were the second and third best-selling Kinect titles, respectively.
-- We are now reporting sales at the total platform level instead of the SKU level but if we were reporting the top 10 SKU's, Halo: Reach would have been #10 this month.
-- The Xbox 360 Kinect was the best-selling accessory item in November. With one month of sales, it's the top-selling accessory item in terms of dollar sales on a year-to-date basis. The Xbox 360 platform contributed five of the top ten accessory items for the month.
-- Pachter also noted that one third of PS3 sales were $400 PlayStation Move bundles, versus one half of all Xbox 360 purchases being Kinect bundles. (There are two Kinect bundles, a $300 4GB model and $400 250GB model.) "Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles outsold PS3 Move console bundles by more than 5 to 1," said the analyst.
Year to Date and Lifetime to date sales in the US.
DS - 6.06m (44.79m)
X360 - 4.90m (23.53m)
Wii - 4.64m (31.83m)
PS3 - 3.12m (14.25m)
Here are the numbers for November 2009 if you are curious.
Wii - 1.26M
Xbox 360 - 819,500
PS3 - 710,400
NDS - 1.70M
PSP - 293,900
PS2 - 203,100
