NDP Number Crunch: Games industry tops $1 billion in March '08

Leo Chan - Friday, April 18, 2008 11:26am (PST) 0 Favourite (0)

Wii, DS, Smash Bros. Brawl tops lists, and Xbox 360 also beats analysts' expectations

It's not Christmas all over again for the video games industry, but nevertheless the NPD Group's latest monthly US retail sales report reveals that March 2008 was still damn good for gaming. The console games industry as a whole racked up $1 billion USD in sales, a 57 percent increase over March 2007's results, with around $945.6 million USD coming from software alone. March 2008's console hardware sales leapt 46 percent compared to the same month last year, hitting $551.3 million USD.

Nintendo remained the big winner last month in terms of console hardware sales; Wii sales in particular jumped to 721,000 units, no doubt thanks to the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. DS sales were also stellar at 698,000 units. The popularity of handheld consoles continues as the Sony PlayStation Portable takes third place with 297,000 units in sales; the gap between second and third place was certainly wide indeed.

Vindication would once elude again Wedbush Morgan industry analyst Michael Pachter, who earlier this week suggested the PlayStation 3 would trump the Xbox 360 in sales. In fact, Microsoft's console would barely beat out the PS3 to secure third place in the monthly hardware race. Sony's PS2 meanwhile returned to last place after beating both the PS3 AND Xbox 360 in February. PS3 sales actually dropped slightly as well during March, though not as badly as the PS2's did.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is already a record setter for Nintendo of America, being its fastest selling game yet. It's no surprise then that Brawl ended up being the best selling console software title last month with 2.7 million units in sales. Devil May Cry 4 disappeared off the charts completely, as much of the software top ten was also comprised of new releases. For example, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 and Army of Two for the Xbox 360 would nab second and third place, respectively, though neither title managed to break 1 million units in sales like Brawl did.

Sales would prove to be more modest for the rest of the top ten software. Even the hotly anticipated Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII "only" managed to sell 301,600 units, beaten by the God of War himself on the PSP. Call of Duty 4 and Wii Play don't seem to want to go anywhere in the meantime; the latter title in fact is still quite cozy in the top five.

March 2008 US Games Industry Summary

Total sales - $1.7 billion USD
Console software - $945.6 million USD
Console hardware - $551.3 million USD
Console accessories - $220 million USD

March 2008 US Hardware Sales