Analyze That: November NPD Blockbuster Edition

A detailed look at the figures the NPD Group released for videogame sales in November in the United States shows that Modern Warfare 2 is not only a much bigger release than the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare but also bigger than Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty: World at War.

The November 2009 chart is dominated by Modern Warfare 2 and goes a little like this:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) – 4.20 million
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) – 1.87 million
New Super Mario Bros. (Wii) – 1.39 million
Assassin's Creed 2 (Xbox 360) – 794,700
Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) – 744,000
Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 720,200
Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 697,000
Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3) – 448.400
Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox 360) – 362,100
Wii Mario Kart (Wii) – 315,000.

The same time frame in 2008 saw the following results:

Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) - 1.56 million
Call of Duty: World At War (Xbox 360) - 1.41 million
Wii Play (Wii) – 796,000
Wii Fit (Wii) – 697,000
Mario Kart (Wii) – 637,000
Call of Duty: World At War (PS3) – 597,000
Guitar Hero: World Tour (Wii) – 475,000
Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) – 410,000
Resistance 2 (PS3) – 385,000
Wii Music (Wii) – 297,000.

For the sake of comparison, the first Modern Warfare moved 1.57 million units on the Xbox 360 in the first month, with the PlayStation 3 version not charting in the top ten. The very fact that more than 1.8 million players chose to pick up the PS3 version of the most recent blockbuster shooter is a testament to the appeal of the Sony console in 2009. The performance of Left 4 Dead 2 is also noticeably better than that of the first title, proof of the sweeping changes that Valve managed to make to the experience.

New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii is also doing better than Super Mario Galaxy did in November 2008 and the Wii manages to maintain the biggest number of titles in the top ten. One interesting situation is that of Assassin's Creed 2, which got smaller sales than its predecessor on the Xbox 360 and more on the PS3, with the overall total being 1,243,100 to 1,357,000.