After a last minute delay last week, The NPD Group today released its video game sales data for the month of September. Following five consecutive months of decline, total industry sales were just barely up (1% increase) year-over-year to $1.28 billion. Software was up 5% to $649.32 million, while hardware was down 6% to $472.28 million. Accessories, driven by Wii MotionPlus and Wii Remote sales, were up 2% to $157.33 million.
NPD analyst Anita Frazier commented, "The industry managed a modest increase over September 2008, and generated the second bestselling September on record after 2007 when Halo 3 released and sold over 3 million copies that month. On a unit sales basis, the industry was flat. The increase in revenues is driven by a rise in average retail prices in all categories with the exception of console hardware in which the average retail price decreased 8% from last September."
In terms of hardware, PS3 was the top selling console with 491.8K units sold. Nintendo's Wii wasn't that far behind with 462.8K units, followed by Xbox 360 with 352.6K units. The top selling piece of hardware, however, remains the Nintendo DS with 524.2K units; the DS has topped hardware for six consecutive months. PSP and PS2 meanwhile sold 190.4K and 146K units, respectively. It's pretty clear that PS3 got a huge lift from the price drop.
"All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August)," said Frazier. "Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year's sales. This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month. This is the first month that the PS3 has captured the top spot in console hardware sales." IndustryGamers thinks PS3 will finally remain competitive from here on out.
As good as September was for PS3, however, Xbox 360 actually drove the most growth. Frazier pointed out: "Across all categories, the Xbox 360 platform contributed the most to industry unit and dollar sales as sales of 360 hardware, software and accessories comprised 32% of the month's revenues."
On the software side, it comes as no surprise that Halo 3: ODST took first place. The game sold through 1.52 million copies. "Halo 3 certainly impacted the industry two years ago (Sep'07) when it was launched, and this year, Halo 3: ODST realized impressive sales making it the 6th best-selling SKU launch of all time. Five of the top 10 software items for the month were on the Xbox 360 platform," said Frazier.
Wii Sports Resort, in its third month, came in a very distant second with 442.9K units sold. It's worth noting that The Beatles: Rock Band did indeed outsell Guitar Hero 5, as was forecast by EEDAR.
Here's the top 10 list (ranked by units), as provided by NPD:
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