October 17th, 2008

New Video Game Statistics

Back in mid-August, we were talking about video game statistics, and despite the fact we got into sales numbers a few times in the meantime, I think now is the perfect moment for a new video game statistics roundup. While back then we mainly talked about sales of games for various platforms during July, now we'll get to a more interesting topic - the consoles battle, and the September hardware sales. Ready or not, here we go...

The strategic situation looks like this: Microsoft's wise decision to cut prices for the Xbox 360 helped its console stay in front of the Sony PlayStation 3 in the US, while Nintendo's consoles are dominating the market without having anything to worry about, at least for now.

When talking about money, lower prices lead to a smaller profit overall, since in September 2007, total hardware sales were as high

as $546 million (we're only talking about US consoles sales, keep that in mind), while last month, the market was as low as $498 million.

If you're curious about sales numbers - and I bet you do - here you have them: Xbox 360 sold 347,000 units in September, up from 195,000 in August, while PlayStation 3 got up to 232,000, from a "tiny" 185,000, during the previous month. As I was saying earlier, Nintendo owns everywthing, and the numbers show this clearly - the Wii sold no less than 687,000 units during September.

At last, let's talk about handheld consoles, shall we? With Microsoft missing in action here, we have the Nintendo DS leading the way, with 537,000 units sold, while Sony's PSP only managed to score 238,000 sales.

If you were wondering, all the data above comes from NPD Group. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask, and you'll get your answer!