November ‘08 NPD Numbers: Nintendo Prints More Money

Thu, Dec 11, 2008

In June 2000, eight-and-a-half years ago, the New York Times announced that that they would begin publishing a separate best-seller list exclusively for children's books. Why? Because Harry Potter threatened the adult books' livelihood. "The time has come when we need to clear some room," said editor Charles McGrath.

I'm beginning to wonder if the NPD shouldn't do the exact same thing for the Nintendo Wii. Though Xbox did quite well last month and both Gears of War II and Call of Duty: World at War had very strong retail debuts, it was the Nintendo Wii that sold 2.04 million units in November, and its evergreen games -- including, believe it or not, Wii Music -- account for fully one-half of the top-ten list.

It was a good month for gaming. The U.S. console games industry as a whole rose 10% from last November to $2.91 billion, that change divided nearly equally between hardware and software, which rose to $1.21 billion and $1.45 billion respectively. While not as drastic a change as that of last November, when sales were up 50% across the board year-over-year, it's still solid growth -- and compared to the month of October, we can see that things have improved drastically.

Where all of Sony's hardware seemed to take a hit in October, they're doing great in November, with PSP more than doubling to 421,000 (from 193K); PS3 nearly doubling to 378,000 (from 190K) and the PS2 still hanging on at 206,000 units sold (from 136K). Mind you, all three still sold fewer units than last November, which boasted 576K, 466K and 496K respectively.

As reported earlier this morning, Microsoft outsold Sony 2:1 with its Xbox 360 -- netting 836,000 new gamers, from 371K in October, and 770K last November. Of course, it probably helps that it had two blockbusters -- Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty: World at War - behind it.

We've already spoken about the 2.04 million units the Nintendo Wii sold (it practically sold the 981K of last November, and the 803K from last month in one week) but it won't do to forget about the Nintendo DS, which remained rock solid at 1.57 million, triple October and and a very slight increase from the 1.53 million last November.

And then there was software. No surprises in slots three through five, to be sure, but there are a few conclusions to be drawn. First, despite a Metacritic average of nearly nine points below that of its predecessor Call of Duty 4, Treyarch's World at War posted very similar sales numbers. Where one year ago, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of CoD4 sold 1.57 million and 444,000 respectively, here we have 1.41 million and 597,000 units sold -- and World at War actually released five days later this year. While it's certainly possible that the console gaming audience has expanded such in the interim that less of the same gamers are purchasing the new title, it's no less of a victory for Activision Blizzard.

Though its $10 million marketing campaign got off on the wrong hand, Left 4 Dead surpassed first-month sales of The Orange Box by over 150,000 copies; and Resistance 2, well... the original didn't make the top ten list for its November '06 debut, so the series is obviously doing a lot better now.

And like a shot from behind comes Wii Music. Last month, maestro Miyamoto's opus only sold 81K -- but this month, we're seeing over three times that. If the intriguing social features of that game spread, it just may become a permanent fixture on the top-seller list a la Wii Play, Wii Fit and Mario Kart.

If that happens -- you'll know it's time for a new list.

Conspicuously, but unsurprisingly missing from the top 10: Mirror's Edge and Need for Speed: Undercover. We've asked the NPD for sales data for both games.