November 2008 Console Sales Figures (featuring broken records)
 

November numbers and top ten are out. NPD figures are USA only as always.

Hardware: ....... November ..... (October).... Lifetime

Wii .................2.04M....... 803K .... ... 15.4m
Nintendo DS ......1.57M.. ...491K .... ... 24.4m
Xbox 360 ...........836k... ....371K .... ... 12.4m
PSP ................ 421k......... 193K .... ... 13.2m
PlayStation 3 .....378k...... 190K .... ... 6.1m
PlayStation 2 ......206k..... 136K .... ... 43.0m

Software:

GEARS OF WAR 2* (360) ............... ........ 1.56m
CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* (360) ... 1.41m
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE (WII) .................... 796K
WII FIT (WII) ...................................... 697K
MARIO KART (WII) ............................... 637K
CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (PS3) ..... 597K
GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* (WII) .......... 475K
LEFT 4 DEAD (360) .............. ................. 410K
RESISTANCE 2* (PS3) ................ .......... 385K
WII MUSIC (WII) ................... ................297K

(*includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

Others:

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC) .... 1.4m
Fable II (360) ................ 184k


Lifetime software:

Software LTD's:
Wii Play: .......... 7.929.501
Mario Kart Wii:.... 4.013.000
Wii Fit: ............ 3.530.134
Wii Music: ......... 378.000
Fable II ............... 974,000

Best selling single SKU titles of all time (since NPD began tracking in the mid to late 90's, otherwise Super Mario Bros. 3 would be listed among other older games):

Wii Play (7.9m)
GTA SA PS2 (6.9m)
GTA VC PS2 (6.8m)
Super Mario 64 (5.9m)
GTA3 PS2 (5.6m)

Industry numbers:


The Wii smashed the previous November record of 1.3 million consoles sold set by the PS2 in November of 2002. The all time record for one month's sales is 2.7 million set by the PS2 in December of that year. Supply issues may or may not prevent the Wii from besting that number next month.

It looks like Wii Music didn't bomb after all.

In addition to their pricing problems, Sony is barking up the wrong tree with their focus on shooters. The sales of Gears of War 2 v. Resistance 2 and the 360/PS3 split on Call of Duty: World at War sales show that shooter fans have largely gone with the 360 in part due to popularity of Gears and Halo, the 360's one year head start, and oh yeah the price.

Keep in mind that just because a game doesn't appear in the top ten doesn't mean it hasn't sold well, especially in a month like this where the #10 game is around 300k. So Animal Crossing: City Folk, LittleBigPlanet, Guitar Hero: World Tour on 360/PS3, CoD: WaW on Wii, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, etc. may all be selling rather well but we won't know about it.

Although I haven't played Left 4 Dead, assuming it's as good as most people say it is I'm glad to see it sell so well considering it's a new IP. Plus I'm sure it sold even more on the PC than on 360.

I don't expect the DSi to come out in US anytime soon with these continued DS sales.

Microsoft PR
Nintendo PR
Sony PR

expect spin

Broken records in that it's the same thing as pretty much every month this year or that the Wii and DS sold crazy numbers? ;)

SI

Amazing numbers by the Wii. The 360 numbers are impressive as well. I guess the recession isn't affecting game buying.

Both actually.

LOL......When you have an installed base as big as the Wii and you only sell 378K of a first-party Nintendo title to date during the holiday season, that's a pretty big flop.

As far as sales go, nothing surprising this month. PS3 won't pass the 360 again month over month until we see the expected price drop early next year. Wii continues to sell extremely well.

I'm surprised MBBF didn't jump all over this.

You're right about GoW vs. Resistance 2 - but I'm not sure you're right on your conclusion about CoD.

COD 360 - 1.4m
COD PS3 - 597k
Total COD - 1.997m

360 Install Base - 12.4m
PS3 Install Base - 6.1m
Total Next Gen - 18.5

360's Share of the install base is 67% and their share of COD sales was 70%. That's not really that far off of what you would expect, it may not even be statistically significant.

Ooh! Ooh! Found it!

SI

The only spin there was MJ4H trying to downplay the the inferior sales of Wii Music. Wii Music has not done well at all. He chose not to discuss the actual figures because he knows how weak they have been. The weakness of that attempt was only surpassed by the press releases of Sony and Microsoft that tried to minimize (as they have over the past few months) just how badly they're getting hammered.

In a broader sense, I really have a tough time reconciling this recession & what my own eyes tell me at the consumer level on a daily basis.

great success

lol

It's been pointed out regarding several multi-platform games. GTAIV was another good example. Based on percentage of installed base when compared to its competitor, it actually had a better attach rate on the PS3 worldwide.

Hey, now we have three broken records!

I know you are probably including me in that, but that's ok, it's still spot on. :)

While it's definitely not a "bomb", I'd have to think Nintendo is a pretty disappointed with the Wii music sales. That's not exactly a rousing success compared to the majority of their 1st party stuff.

It's obviously one that isn't reliant on the first rush of sales, it'll continue selling but be interesting to see how much. I haven't tried it out yet, but I haven't heard many glowing reviews so far, but that probably doesn't matter.

I'm more surprised to see a 3rd party Wii game on the list, that seems like a bigger shock. :)

I doubt they expected it to take off like a rocket. If they are disappointed in it, they really have no one to blame but themselves, anyway. That presentation at E3 was a disaster and turned so many people off of it permanently.

That said, the numbers are still great numbers, and this is one of those steady seller games. I would seriously doubt that at the end of its life Nintendo were anything like disappointed with how it will have sold.

But lol at saying it "bombed" while being in the overall top 10 of software sales.

As you probably know, in a recession, movie ticket sales have traditionally done very well. The long-held theory is that movies provide a cost-effective form of entertainment/escape at a time when the public is desperately seeking this.

There has been a lot of speculation that says that video games probably fit the same niche, perhaps even more so. Although acquiring a game console requires a significant buy-in from the consumer, the console with good games that you will play for a bunch of hours works out to be a solid entertainment bargain.

Also, the extraordinarily awful unemployment numbers haven't shown up fully in these sales numbers. When the hundreds of thousands of folks that have recently lost their jobs reach the end of their unemployment benefits, I expect the downturn in consumer spending will be much more evident.

I saw a reference to the PS3 as the Gamecube of this generation. Made my chuckle.

I agree.

Noone I know has lost their job (in fact, my wife got found a job with a "real" raise this fall) or their house due to a bad mortgage, nor any income due to the poor stock market. In fact, we all have more money due to lower gas prices, and are buying more shares with our 401k contributions.

Retail sales are already down 10% from last year.

At the risk of being bunched up with MBBF ( yikes ;) ), I kind of agree that Wii Music is a bit of a disappointment in sales. As much hype as it had, and as much advertising they still have for that game, The sales numbers were expected to be higher. A flop? No, it is probably a solid game and the sales numbers will continue to rise at a steady number is my guess. Still, it is not Wii Fit level, which is probably what the hope was with the popularity of music games.

As for the economy being down, I can't say I am too surprised games are still doing so well. I have always been a skeptic with the economy because of comments like the one above. Sales are down 10% from last year. My response is usually, "Oh no's! Company A is making $900 million in profit instead of $1 Billion, it's the Great Depression for sures!" :) Then again, I am not a genius.

:+1:

TMQ had a great point this week about how the media tends to create these recessions, as there is never any GOOD economic news. Heck, household debt fell for the first time since they started tracking it, something experts have pushed for for a LONG time, and it's buried on page 3 in a little sidebar next to the big "evil Republicans thwart auto bailout because workers won't take wage cut" article.

Gas prices go up? Bad because people can't afford things. Gas prices go down? Bad because oil company profits tank. Interest rates go down? Bad because people can go into debt easier. Interest rates go up? Bad because people can't borrow any more. Nothing the economy does is ever good for the media.

Noticed some speculation over on NeoGaf about the possibility of Disney purchasing EA. Certainly would be an interesting merger and with EA really struggling right now, the price is right for a takeover.

Wii Music is well on it's way to selling over a million copies worldwide, and with the typical long legs of Nintendo's casual games I bet it hits over two million. You might say the sales figures are somewhat disappointing (and I would disagree) but by no means did the title bomb.

I get the impression that if you don't say it is a success, then all the Wii Music defenders are just going to think keep insisting it isn't a bomb, even though I and others didn't say that. With the amount of promotion spent for Wii Music, all I am saying is that they probably had the hopes of it being Wii Fit like in sales and it hasn't been. If I had those expectations and it fell short of being that, it is a bit of a disappointment. A disappointment my company will make money off of probably, but still not what we hoped for. That is what a disappointment is IMO. Doesn't mean it's doing bad.

Kind of like a football team. You were Superbowl champs last year, this year struggled to make the playoffs. It's a hell of a lot better then being the Oakland Raiders, just not as good as hoped for.

Nah, this is about MBBF insisting in an earlier thread that Wii Music would "bomb." It hasn't and it won't. That's the whole point.

And they have themselves to blame for it being "disappointing" (and I don't personally buy that what it has done so far is disappointing, but that's a separate issue). Nintendo shot this game in the forehead at E3.

I have no interest in purchasing Wii Music, but as someone pointed out earlier its almost certain to sell a million copies and likely to hit two million lifetime. Not every first party game will hit Mario Kart/Wii Fit/Galaxy levels.

And FWIW, at least one person in this thread did say it was bomb... I believe the exact wording was "big flop".

LittleBigPlanet sold 141k last month, putting it's total US sales at 356k through November. It was the fourth placed PS3 game behind CoD: WaW, Resistance 2, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and did not make the top 20 (which hasn't been posted anywhere yet unfortunately).

So the 20th placed game, whatever it was, sold more than 141k in November.

gamesutra.com

It's not a big series in the US but RPG fans might find it interesting that Square-Enix has announced Dragon Quest X for the Wii. It's kind of surprising that this happened before Dragon Quest IX comes out for the DS in March (in Japan, no date for the US yet. The DQ V remake is coming out in Feburary on the DS here though).

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata wants to make Dragon Quest a big series in the West.


gonintendo.com

I'd love to see the DQ games become more popular over here. I don't think Square-Enix charging $40 for their DS games helps them though.

Got some tax refund checks the other day. Was toying with the idea of putting some of that into EA, and then this broke.

PS3 as Gamecube of the next gen is shocking.

The PS3 is a much better system. I love the operating interface. While the 360 has a 1 year headstart, PS3s have to start croaking in droves to catch up with the reliability failure rate. The BluRay player doesn't really justify the extra 100 bucks price tag, but it does add some value. The self charging included remote is a mile and half better than having to buy 30 bucks worth of recharging supplies separately. Plus the remote is just better, its more comfortable, and has motion sensing. The XBOX dashboard feels like a funnel to the marketplace. Playstation network is free, and easy to create multiple online enabled accounts on one machine.


The first party/system exclusive games are better for the 360, especially shooters. Obviously, Halo and Gears own Resistance in most gamers' minds, I can't speak about it yet since Gamefly still has Resistance on the way to me. Little Big Planet is better than anything I've ever player only on xbox/360 though. Little Big Planet might be the best thing I've played since Everquest, actually. Its certainly lived up to the reputation that made it a factor in trading in my Wii for the PS3. God of War moving to the PS3 will be exciting too.

My new PS3 has also sent me back to my PSP for the main reason that it reminded my how much I liked the PSP "experience". If I had to pick one manufacturer I would certainly keep my Sony systems (original Guitar Hero, Rocks the 80s and God of War, Kingdom Hearts and .hack on PS2, Patapon and Daxter on PSP, LBP on PS3....I couldn't part with any of em). Except for Gears which my boys still play online and are getting v2 for xmas, I wouldn't miss anything all that badly for my xbox or 360 (well, maybe Project Gotham a little). And my Wii, I've posted about my Wii experience here....the disc handling mechanism proved unreliable for my family, and the games wore out their welcome fast.

Here's the top 20:

1) Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) / Microsoft / 1,560,000
2) Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360) / Activision Blizzard / 1,410,000
3) Wii Play w/ Remote (WII) / Nintendo / 796,000
4) Wii Fit w/ Balance Board (WII) / Nintendo / 697,000
5) Mario Kart Wii w/ Wheel (WII) / Nintendo / 637,000
6) Call of Duty: World at War (PS3) / Activision Blizzard / 597,000
7) Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii) / Activision Blizzard / 475,000
8) Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) / Electronic Arts / 410,000
9) Resistance 2 (PS3) / Sony / 385,000
10) Wii Music / Nintendo / 297,000
11) Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii) / Nintendo
12) Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) / Bethesda Softworks
13) Rock Band (Wii) / MTV Games
14) Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia (DS) / Nintendo
15) Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox 360) / Activision Blizzard
16) Mario Kart (DS) / Nintendo
17) Guitar Hero World Tour (PS2) / Activision Blizzard
18) WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009 (PS2) / THQ
19) Fable II (Xbox 360) / Microsoft (181,000)
20) Madden NFL 09 (Xbox 360) / Electronic Arts

:lol: @ Rock Band on Wii outselling the PS3/360 versions of Rock Band 2

It's nice to see Fallout 3 still selling.

Mario Kart DS is still charting three years after release. America loves Mario Kart.

Sadly, Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) didn't do so well, selling only 33k in it's debut month and unable to crack the top 100 accoring to Edge-Online. I just got this a few days ago and it's really good so far. If you like strategy games or RPGs check it out.

That's really sad considering that the Wii is by far the most inferior way to play Rock Band. DLC is limited by the tiny flash memory on the Wii or the super slow SD cards. Online play is terrible because of those god-awful friend codes. I almost feel sorry for anybody who buys Rock Band on that platform, they have no idea how much better their experience would be on 360 / PS3.

PS3 may not be selling well but kudos to Sony for fixing my broken PS3 in record time. Shipped it Monday morning and got a brand new unit back today. That's service.

Another thing, I have no idea how Nintendo gets away with calling Wii Play software. It is so obviously an accessory sku, with everybody purchasing it for the Wiimote, and a tiny little "freeware" type game thrown in for good measure.

Microsoft needs to do something crazy like throw in a free copy of Ninety Nine Nights with each controller they sell and call in the GREATEST GAME EVAH!!! when it starts outselling the AAA titles.

There's nothing stopping the other companies from doing the same thing, and they have tried similar approaches. Sony has bundled SOCOM and Warhawk with headsets, I'm pretty sure there was a Viva Pinata: Party Animals + 360 controller combo at some point after that game bombed, Nintendo has also bundled Animal Crossing with Wii Speak, but none of those sold nearly as well as Wii Play.

I think the issue is that Wii Play is a nothing game bundled with a must-have accessory, while something like Animal Crossing is a fantastic game coupled with a nearly irrelevant accessory (actually, though, Wii Speak works really well and is very nice to have).

But everyone knows it sells for the controller so what's the big deal? Nobody says "Wii Play has sold 7m+ so it must be a great game."

Hopefully more games will support Wii Speak in the future, it'd be great to be able to hear someone curse you when you take them out with a red shell in Mario Kart.

Well The Counduit is supposed to support it.

Those numbers are horrible news on a YtY basis for the PS3. Comparing Nov. 2007 to Nov. 2008, Wii more than doubled their console sales, the 360 increased by about 10%, but the PS3 dropped 19%.

Yes they are, but I'm sure the Tsunami is coming any day now for Sony.

I keep thinking that bluray will help the PS3 any day now. I mean, it's really the only reason I've ever considered a PS3. I have never even briefly entertained the idea of getting a 360 because of the hardware failures. More and more people will be wanting bluray players, right? Right?

I mean, I'm not even an HD whore and I wouldn't mind having a bluray player.

The only bad thing about a PS3 is that it's in last place and gets treated that way. COD: WaW online support for the PS3 version is crap so far. It's a great system, my favorite of the three now, but they bobbled the ball and the Wii is a juggernaut.

Damn good system though MJ4H, and the BR is indeed nice to have.

This reminded me of being in the store the other day. Someone's mom was getting info about systems from a Target employee and I could see her trying to absorb the actual differences between the different 360 models, and of course the arcade (I think that is the model name) that is $199 just naturally seemed to be what she kept going back to. It's pretty simple to me, PS3 is too expensive compared to the others when mom's do a lot of the buying and see no difference between the systems.

Totally agree. The 360's pricing IS the reason it's remaining competitive. When the pricing reaches the point where you can buy 2 360's for the price of one PS3 as it is now, people can justify the purchase of a system that they know has quality issues. As someone said before, if it breaks a couple of years down the road, you can still buy another one and end up paying the same thing (or less on the second one as prices will drop in the future).

The PS3 was beating the 360 in sales for the first 2/3 of this year because the price difference wasn't as great. Until the PS3 drops to a $299 model next year and makes it a bit more competitive, the 360 is probably going to do better than the PS3.

Again, as already stated- Wii owners are more than getting the shaft on these sorts of things. The Wii gets treated as the bastard stepchild by devs and still is selling more copies of anything remotely worth playing.

SI

Seeing that the Wii is horribly underpowered, does not output a high definition signal, and with a inaccurate controller that only works well with specific types of games, isn't that to be expected?

No.

Well, you can make a game that ports very well across 3 platforms (360, PS3, PC) or develop a game for the Wii that doesn't carry over well to the other 3 platforms and has a customer base that is finicky about anything that isn't made by Nintendo.

fixed