14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD charts separate hardware sales related to gaming and actual game sales so the March report is split in two rather distinct parts. As we've already reported, Nintendo topped the hardware sales chart in style, with the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS taking first and second position.
Both in a rare occurrence in the videogame industry, Nintendo also had a strong showing in the games sales department, making it a double trophy win for the company. It tops both charts and it seems very well positioned to hang on to those top positions for months to come.
Overall games sales in March grew by 63 percent year over year since March 2007 to the sum of 945.6 million dollars. The top game was the much publicized, much loved and sometimes criticized Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. It sold some 2.7 million copies in the month of March which means that a little over 30% of the Wii owners of North America got the game. This in itself is a pretty staggering figure that demonstrates the marketing force that Nintendo has.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the Xbox 360 took second place, far behind the Wii title, with some 750,000 copies sold in March while Army of Two for the Xbox 360 is in third place with a little over 600,000 games sold. Army of Two also makes an appearance in tenth place with the PlayStation 3 version of the game, which sold slightly less than Call of Duty 4. The fact that after a few months from launch Call of Duty 4 is still in the top ten chart shows how much the game managed to profit from positive reviews and a dedicate on-line following.
Wii Play is also selling strong at number 4, with the God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PlayStation Portable taking fifth place and PSP title Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII in at sixth place. Since these are North America-based numbers, it's no surprise that Major League Baseball 2K8 is also in the top ten.
Anita Frazier, analyst for the NPD, provided further insight by saying that: "The amazing year-over-year increase in software sales isn't just explained by a few top games - as compared to last March, twice as many SKU's achieved sales in excess of 100K units this month." Which means that more games are breaking the 100,000 units sold barrier this year than ever. A further testament to the growing strength of the videogame industry.