In software sales, five of the top ten games are on Nintendo platforms.
2008 starts off with a virtual dead heat for console hardware sales, with all charted platforms selling within 50,000 units of each other:
January 2008 U.S. Hardware Sales
Wii – 274k
PlayStation 3 – 269k
PlayStation 2 – 264k
Nintendo DS – 251k
PlayStation Portable – 230k
Xbox 360 – 230k
The Nintendo Wii barely eked out a first place finish according to NPD's sales data, and the real story is what came in second: Sony's PlayStation 3. Last year Sony released new hardware revisions and cut the price of the PS3, and it paid off in January by rocketing the PS3 to second place where December saw it in last. Almost as shocking is the Xbox 360's plummet to tie with the Sony Playstation Portable at the bottom of the list.
Of course, January typically sees a sales slowdown after the hectic holiday shopping season, and low shipments of hardware may play into the dampened sales of traditional high-sellers. For example, the demand for the Wii still outstrips demand more than a year after the console's release.
As for NPD's software sales data:
January 2008 U.S. Top Ten Software Sales
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 330.9k
Wii Play w/Remote (Wii) – 298.1k
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) – 239.6k
Rock Band Bundle (Xbox 360) – 183.8k
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (XBox 360) – 182.7k
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 172k
Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) – 144.1k
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) – 140k
Mario Party (DS) – 138.5k
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) – 133k
Two new games break into the top ten in January – Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the DS and Burnout Paradise for the Xbox 360 – but the rest is composed of returning blockbusters. Super Mario Galaxy has amassed over 2.7 million units in lifetime sales in the U.S. market so far, and despite its sound issues, Guitar Hero III for the Wii continues to sell strongly, with over 1.5 million units sold to date on the Wii console alone. And of course, Wii Play continues to chug along, its consistent sales month after month amassing to a lifetime to date total of more than 4.4 million in the U.S. alone. Maybe more games should come with a Wii remote included?
