System and game sales for June 2008 in the USA

20 July 2008

Posted by:Ferry

June’s American video game sales data from the NPD is in, and like almost any month past year, it shows an unchanged result: The Nintendo Wii outsold all other systems. The suprise comeback was Metal Gear Solid 4 driving PlayStation 3 sales last month. Compared to the same month last year total hardware sales were up 54%, to over $615.1 million. Compared to the same month last year total software sales were up 61%, to over $872.6 million.

Video game hardware overview:
1. Nintendo DS — 783,000
2. Nintendo Wii — 666,700
3. PlayStation 3 — 405,500
4. PlayStation Portable — 337,400
5. Xbox 360 — 219,800
6. PlayStation 2 — 188,800

Video game sales totals for the month were $1.69 billion. That’s an increase of 53% over last year. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) has now generated combined sales of nearly one million units, making it the top-selling title of the month. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) launched in America with 422,300 sales.

Video game software overview top 10:
1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) — 774,600
2. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) — 422,300
3. Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360) — 372,700
4. Wii Fit with Balance Board (Wii) — 372,700
5. Wii Play with Remote (Wii) — 359,100
6. Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360) — 346,800
7. Mario Kart Wii with wheel (Wii) — 322,400
8. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (Wii) — 294,500
9. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (DS) — 267,800
10. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (PS2) — 260,300

Anita Frazier, Industry Analyst for NPD, makes her conclusions for the month:

Overall
“The video games industry continues to perform in the face of an ever-increasingly difficult economic environment as many turn to more in-home entertainment. Even if growth slows over the back half of 2008, the industry is poised to achieve record-breaking revenues of over $22B for the year.”

“Looking at historical data, hardware price reductions have been a good incentive for a broader consumer base to invest in a new-gen system, which encourages continued industry growth across all categories.”

Hardware
“Platform-exclusive content usually fuels hardware system purchases, and PS3 sales certainly reflect the impact of Metal Gear Solid 4. PS3 unit sales were the highest of any month outside of that recorded during previous November/December holiday timeframes.”

“The Wii has taken the lead in total sales of current generation console hardware at 10.9 million units sold at retail life-to-date in the U.S.”

“The 360 platform has driven the greatest number of hardware purchases this generation, with just under 8 software units purchased for each unit of hardware, on average.”

Software
“As expected, Metal Gear Solid 4 realized significant retail sales and drove PS3 hardware acquisition. While the attached media report does not include units bundled with hardware, if included MGS4 sold-through nearly 1 million units.”

“Wii Play continues to achieve an attach rate of over 50% to every new Wii hardware system sale. I can’t think of another game that has ever had that kind of performance after 16 months at retail.”

“At the title level, Lego Indiana Jones captured the top sales spot for the month at 1.1 million units sold across all platforms. As Iron Man did last month, mass-friendly titles are a perfect fit for the still healthy PS2 platform, and the PS2 version of this game grabbed a spot in the top 10 list.”

Accessories
“Accessory sales growth slowed slightly this month but still increased 25% over last June. Accessories for the Wii contributed one-third of total category sales, and the new games and accessories that Nintendo announced at E3 should engender future accessory sales.”