Jacob Mazel

NPD has released its monthly assessment of the USA videogame market. Market leader Nintendo managed to sell 803,000 Wiis in the four weeks ending November 1 according to the company, which appears to be an all time record outside of a launch or holiday month. As a point of comparison, in November 2007, Xbox 360 sold 770,000 units in the USA by NPD figures in the wake of Halo 3 in September and the systems first price cut in August.

The other figures for October were more standard fare – DS sold 491,000 units, Xbox 360 sold 371,000 units, PSP sold 193,000 units, PS3 sold 190,000 units, and PS2 sold 136,000 units. Perhaps the most interesting bit is that Wii outsold all of Sony’s systems combined, and that even Microsoft had a rare moment in the sun against its bitter HD rival, by outselling PS3 and PS2 combined.

The software situation for Sony was encouraging. Little Big Planet debuted in the top ten despite a delayed launch. Socom also charted in the top ten for PS3. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s mega-hits continued their rampage in the top ten. Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Mario Kart seem to have locked down positions in the top ten monthly sellers in a way similar to how the USA, China, UK, France and Russia were granted locked in seats in the UN after World War II. Microsoft had the most titles in the top ten – five – and the top title for the month was Molyneaux’s Fable 2 which sold just shy of 800,000 units in the USA.

None of the above results were particularly out of line with what VGC expected NPD to report . The Americas figures listed on VGC were quite similar to what NPD reported for the USA when scaled down to take out the extra market share included in regions like Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

Software sales were quite close too. The VGC top ten for the Americas was as follows:

The major difference with NPD is in sku tracking. We tracked Guitar Hero sales together, despite the differences in pricing. NPD listed the skus separately and as a result Socom snuck into the top ten. When scaling down the VGC Americas data for just the USA again, the differences look like so compared to the figures NPD reported:

In reality, the two PS3 titles may be closer than they appear, as some Walmarts broke the street date for Little Big Planet, and both VGC and NPD had to estimate how many copies sold. Socom is a game we had at 232,000 for the Americas, but unlike a hockey game or a soccer title, Socom is the type of title that tends to see higher than the normal 90% of sales in the USA because it is about subject matter (US Navy Seals) which is quintessentially American – like football.

As for the overall picture of sales in the USA, Wii has sold nearly 6m units in 2008 in 10 months, up 2m from 10 months in 2007. PS3 sales have doubled from 1.3m in 2007 through October to 2.4m through October in 2008. DS sales have jumped from 4.4m to 5.3m in 10 months. Xbox 360 has seen a small dip – from 2.6m to 2.45m. PSP has jumped incrementally; it is up 200,000 units from the 2.2m it sold in 10 months of 2007. PS2 is down from 2.35m in 2007 to 1.9m.

In terms of NPD USA totals that can be scrounged together from the internet (hence the reason for the delay in this report), Wii has topped 13.3m in 24 months, which is a blistering 550,000+ average sell through pace per month. Xbox 360 will top 12m in its 37^th month for a ~325,000 unit/month average, while PS3 sits at almost 5.7m in the USA through 24 months for a ~237,000 unit/month average. DS is at 23m in 47 months (nearly 490,000/month on average) which is fairly impressive given that it sold fewer than 100,000 in some of its early months if memory serves. PSP stands at 12.9m in 44 months for an average pace of ~295,000 units per month. PSP joined Xbox 360 this month as the second system launched at least a year earlier than Wii that to be passed by Wii in the Americas. PS2 stands at nearly 43m in the USA, but its recent slowdown after an enormous peak unfairly hurts its average monthly sales.

Heading into next month, software sales will explode on blockbuster releases, Black Friday mayhem, and massive uptake in hardware sales. Wii and DS should top 1m for the month, and Xbox 360 has an outside shot at it. If Nintendo has the supply, a 1.5m or 2m month for Wii is possible given that 800,000 sold without a holiday boost.

Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com