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American videogame sales for November 2010 best ever. Black Ops sells 8 million
November 2010 NPD sales number for America are in, and despite the recession-ized state of the economy, videogames did the impossible: November 2010 was the best month EVER for videogame sales!
Thanks to Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekly sales, daring new motion peripherals in the Kinect for Xbox 360 and Move for PlayStation 3 and many high-profile AAA titles from Call of Duty: Black Ops to Epic Mickey to Gran Turismo 5 to Sonic Colors to Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood to Donkey Kong Country Returns to Michael Jackson: The Experience to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 to Flingsmash to The Sly Collection and on and on and on, November saw sales that eclipsed last year by over $30 million USD in a STUNNING turnaround for the industry.
As far as software is concerned, the top 5 were: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Just Dance 2, Madden NFL 11 and Fable 3. Followed closely by Donkey Kong Country Returns in 6th.
Call of Duty: Black Ops posted the biggest sales numbers of any game EVER in terms of first month sales, eclipsing the 8 MILLION SOLD mark to end at 8.4 million units sold (all platforms, discounting PC I assume). This makes it the SEVENTH BEST-SELLING GAME OF ALL TIME life-to-date! Holy hell is that impressive!
Top 10 bestselling games for November 2010:
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops – 360, PS3,Wii, PC, DS – Activision Blizzard
2. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – 360, PS3 – Ubisoft
3. Just Dance 2 – Wii – Ubisoft
4. Madden NFL 11 – 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP – EA
5. Fable 3 – 360 – Microsoft
6. Donkey Kong Country Returns – Wii – Nintendo
7. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – 360, PS3, Wii, PC – EA
8. Gran Turismo 5 – PS3 – Sony
9. NBA 2K11 – 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, PC – Take-2 Interactive
10. Wii Fit Plus – Wii – Nintendo
Additionally, the Xbox 360 saw its strongest month of all time in terms of system sales, with around 1.37 million Xbox 360 consoles sold, which also makes this the biggest November ever for the system. Thanks no doubt to the Kinect (who is bowing down to Oprah and Ellen fo’ sho’!).
Here is how the system sales breakdown:
1. Nintendo DS – 1.5 Million (-11.8%)
2. Xbox 360 – 1.37 Million (+68%)
3. Wii – 1.27 Million (+0.8%)
4. PS3 – 530,000 (-25%)
In an ironic twist, handheld sales were down this November from last year, even though the DS is still sitting pretty as it was the top system seller of the month. Over 1.5 million DS systems were sold in November 2010 says Nintendo.
Now for some quotes:
From Major Nelson regarding Xbox 360 sales, “November marks the sixth consecutive month Xbox 360 leads video game consoles in sales, with 1.37 million units sold. Xbox 360 is the only console to show double digit year-to-date growth at 42%, making it the fastest-growing console in 2010. 50% of spending at retail this November (for current generation consoles) was on the Xbox 360 platform. During the month of November, four of the top ten console game titles were for Xbox 360 including: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fable III, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Halo: Reach.”
From the NPD’s Anita Frazier: “November sales represent the best November on record in terms of new physical retail sales. It bests November 2008 by roughly $30 million, and that time frame was at the height of the music/dance genre sales! All categories were up over last year with the exception of portable hardware and software.”
“The 360 platform accounted for over 40% of total industry sales driven by the successful launch of Microsoft’s Kinect. Xbox 360 accessories accounted for 60% of that categories’ dollar sales this month. Based on typical seasonality trends, new physical retail sales should come in between $18.8B-$19.6B. The higher end of that range would essentially be flat to last year. Gains in November offset a good portion of the year-to-date declines.”
“Remember that this data set represents new physical retail sales only. We have begun to report on sales realized through other channels such as used game sales, digital distribution and mobile apps among others. In the first half of 2010, new physical retail sales at the total industry level accounted for approximately 70% of the total consumer spend against the industry, and while that is likely to change when full year results are tabulated, it gives some context with which to evaluate the portion that new physical retail sales represents.”
“Black Ops debuted as the best-selling game in its launch month (in history) with Black Ops selling 8.4 million units at retail in the U.S. With only one month of sales, it has become the 7th best-selling game of all time, life-to-date. Black Ops accounted for 25% of all video game software units sold in the month of November.”
“The Music/Dance genre increased 38% in unit sales over last November fueled by Just Dance 2 and Dance Central. We are now reporting sales at the total platform level instead of the SKU level but if we were reporting the top 10 SKU’s, Halo: Reach would have been #10 this month.”
“The Xbox 360 was the best-selling console hardware system for the month, realizing an incredible 68% increase over last November. The best-selling system overall was the Nintendo DS. It was a high/low story for the DS this month with the new red SKU providing the most sales and the white, lower-priced SKU being #2. It appears the DS attracted two pockets of consumers: those looking for a unique limited-edition product and those looking for value.”
“We expect a big jump in sales in November due to seasonality and the influence of holiday, but the change this November over October is bigger across most platforms than it was last November. This could point to the impact of aggressive retail promotions during the critical Black Friday week.”
“The Xbox 360 Kinect was the best-selling accessory item in November. With one month of sales, it’s the top-selling accessory item in terms of dollar sales on a year-to-date basis. The Xbox 360 platform contributed five of the top ten accessory items for the month.”
By Josh Romero: He is a lover of videogames, as well as metal music, Gilmore Girls, chatting, social networking, Phoenix Suns, reading, writing and many other nerdy things. Read his posts 
