14 DAY TRIAL // The February NPD Group sales numbers for the United States are now out and the big winner when it comes to videogames is BioShock 2, the first person shooter with a story from Take Two and 2K Games, which managed to top the sales chart with 562,900 units moved to the players eager for a return trip to Rapture and its Plasmid-based combat.
The big hits of fall 2009 managed to also score well in February, with New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii selling slightly more than 555,000 units to take second spot in the chart and with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from Infinity Ward and Activision moving a further 314,000 units on the Xbox 360 just as the two companies behind it announced that the first Map Pack was set to arrive at the end of March.
Fourth place went to rhythm sensation Just Dance from Ubisoft, which moved 275,400 units, while Wii Sports Resort came in fifth with about 3,000 copies less sold during the same period. The PlayStation 3 version of Modern Warfare 2 also charted, taking sixth place on 252,800 units moved to gamers.
Mass Effect 2 also likes the Xbox 360 best, taking seventh place while Dante's Inferno managed to occupy the eighth and ninth circles of the chart, with the PS3 exclusive Divine Edition selling better overall. Quantic Dream's and Sony's Heavy Rain took the last place in the top ten with sales of 218,300 units.
NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier said that “Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month. Nonetheless, strong new releases and Easter gift-buying bode well for industry performance in March.” Overall, videogame sales slipped by 15% when compared with the same period of last year, when Wii Fit and Street Fighter IV took over the top spots.