What were the Top 10 best selling games in December and all of 2012 in the United States?
The newest NPD numbers are in, and so are the top lists of the highest selling game systems and games for the year in America.
Here is the 2012 Top 10:
#1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii U)** Activision Blizzard
#2. Madden NFL 13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita, Wii U) Electronic Arts
#3. Halo 4 (Xbox 360)** Microsoft — 3.2 Million Sales
#4. Assassin’s Creed III (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)** Ubisoft
#5. Just Dance 4 (Wii, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS3) Ubisoft
#6. NBA 2K13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, Wii U, PC)** Take-Two Interactive
#7. Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)** Take-Two Interactive
#8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC)** Activision Blizzard
#9. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita, 3DS, DS, PC) Warner Bros. Interactive
#10. FIFA Soccer 13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita, 3DS, Wii U, PSP) Electronic Arts
Here is the December Top 10:
#1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii U)** Activision Blizzard
#2. Just Dance 4 (Wii, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS3) Ubisoft
#3. Halo 4 (Xbox 360)** Microsoft
#4. Assassin’s Creed III (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)** Ubisoft
#5. Madden NFL 13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita, Wii U) Electronic Arts
#6. Far Cry 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) Ubisoft
#7. NBA 2K13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, Wii U, PC)** Take-Two Interactive
#8. Skylanders Giants (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U)** Activision Blizzard
#9. New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U) Nintendo (At 580,000 Units Sold Total, the attach rate is 65%.)
#10. FIFA Soccer 13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita, 3DS, Wii U, PSP) Electronic Arts
** Includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware. Physical retail copies only.
The multiplatform Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 release was a massive success, although not as massive as last year’s COD. 7.5 Million shooter fans bought the game! Here’s the TV commercial starring Movie and Youtube peoples:
System Sales in December 2012:
#1. Xbox 360 – Sold 1.4 Million Units. (-17.6% year-over-year. “More than double the amount of the second place console in the U.S. in the month of December.”)
#2. Nintendo 3DS – Sold 1.25 Million Units. (-21.8%; 7.7 million units sold life to date.)
#3. PlayStation 3 – Guesstimates put it at 500,000 Units Sold.
#4. Nintendo Wii – Sold 475,000 Units. (-55.2%)
#5. Nintendo DS – Sold 470,000 Units. (-25.4%; 53 million units sold life to date.)
#6. Nintendo Wii U – Sold 460,000 Units. (“The Wii launch number was 604,000 Units.”)
#7. PlayStation Vita – Guesstimates put it at 200,000 Units Sold.
More and more gamers are getting connected through Xbox Live and using Xbox 360 for both gaming and as a multimedia box.
Sales by the numbers:
Video game hardware: $1.07B (-20%)
Video game software (console, handheld): $1.54B (-26%)
Video game software (console, handheld, and PC): $1.58B (-27%)
Video game accessories: $603M (-14%)
Total video game sales: $3.21B (-22%)
Sales were down 27% the last month of the year, which analyst Liam Callahan attributes to fewer releases. To quote:
“A major culprit in the decline in retail sales in 2012 was the lack of new releases with 29% less SKUs across consoles, portables, and PCs. However, the SKUs that were released generated 8% more units per SKU and 11% more dollars per SKU.
The top-selling debut title of the month was Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3, though it was Activison’s November release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II that topped the overall charts.”
[SKU = Stock Keeping Unit. In other words: each game sold.]
Via NeoGAF