14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group announces that the Microsoft-made Xbox 360 home console has managed to be the best selling piece of video game hardware on the United States market for the month of December, with sales of 1.4 million units.
It’s been two full years since the Xbox 360 climbed to number one and since then, it has not been challenged in a significant manner.
Second place in the video game chart has been taken over by the PlayStation 3 from Sony, but the hardware maker has not offered clear sales numbers for December 2012.
The Wii U is also doing well, but failed to launch in spectacular fashion, with 460,000 hardware units delivered to players during last month.
The performance of the new consoles has been helped by the release of New Super Mario Bros. U, which sold 580,000 copies in the same time frame and has an impressive attach rate.
The 3DS has also performed well, with 1.25 million handhelds sold, and even the older DS is still selling for Nintendo.
Sony has not offered any information on the performance of the PlayStation Vita, which probably indicates that the handheld has failed to sell well.
The overall value of hardware sales for December 2012 went down by 20 percent when compared to 2011, reaching 1.07 billion dollars (807 million Euro).
Despite falling hardware sales and lower prices, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have also created revenue from a number of other sources.
Liam Callahan, an analyst for the NPD Group, is quoted by VG247 as saying that, “2012 was also the best year for point card and subscription card sales as gamers sought digital content on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo’s eShop. Games like Journey and Minecraft broke records for number of games downloaded.”
The Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4 are expected to launch during late 2013.