14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD numbers for May are in and it's time for all console manufacturers to spin them their way. But, before we get to the part where said spin makes us dizzy, let's take a look at the cold hard numbers, as reported by the market research and analysis firm.
Hardware sales continue to be strong despite a rumored recession in the United States and little sign of lower prices from manufacturers. The value of all hardware sold reached 428 million dollars, which is with 34% more than in the same period last year.
The Nintendo Wii continues to be the best sold console, again moving more units than its two closest competitors combined. It managed to push 675,000 consoles to customers, a number smaller than the one registered in the previous month. The Nintendo DS is on the second spot, with over 450,000 consoles sold and a jump in sales of some 40,000 units, while the PlayStation 3 takes third spot with a significant increase in sales. It went from 187,000 units sold in April to over 208,000 gaming consoles in May, which is quite good considering the fact that the Microsoft Xbox 360 only moved a little over 188,000 units, with sales remaining all but stationary. Last place in the hardware chart goes to the PlayStation Portable, which only managed some 180,000 handheld devices in sales.
It's clear that even with GTA IV out and selling in great quantities, the install base of the Xbox 360 has not grown very much, while the PlayStation 3 jumped by over 20,000 units. June will most likely see a spike in hardware sales with Father's Day coming up, but the NPD is not expecting any changes at the top.
The software chart is dominated in North America by sales of GTA IV. It managed to push 1.3 million copies as software sales went up by more than 41% compared with the same period in 2007, to a value of 536 million dollars. Mario Kart surprisingly beat Wii Fit to take second spot, with sales of 787,000. The fitness game from Nintendo managed to sell around 687,000 copies in May.
Games for the Nintendo consoles, either Wii or DS, take 7 of the spots in the software top 10, confirming the dominant position that Nintendo hardware has on the North American market. Iron Man, a PlayStation 2 title from Sega, made it at number 7, while two Pokemon games debuted at numbers 9 and 10.