Microsoft Sold 166,000 Xbox 360s in U.S. Last Month, Overtaking PS3
The Xbox 360 returned to the top of the home videogame console sales chart in the U.S. last month, but the 3DS remained the best-selling videogame system for the sixth straight month when factoring in handheld systems, according to NPD’s latest videogame sales data. The PS3 outsold the 360 and Wii U in September as the Microsoft console’s reign as the country’s top-selling home console ended after 32 straight months (CED Oct 21 p6).
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About 166,000 Xbox 360s were sold in the U.S. Oct. 6-Nov. 2, said Microsoft, citing NPD’s data. That allowed the 360 to maintain its lead as the No. 1 console of 2013, said Microsoft. Total retail spending on the 360 platform reached $283 million last month, including hardware, software and accessories, and that was the most for any console in the U.S., said Microsoft.
But the 3DS far outsold the 360, moving more than 452,000 units last month in the U.S., said Nintendo of America (NOA), citing NPD’s data. That was double the number of 3DS systems sold in September and “the most units [of] any portable” videogame system or home console sold in any month this year, said NOA. The growth was driven by strong demand for the Nintendo game titles Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, as well as the launch of the 2DS, which the company added to the 3DS product line in October, it said.
The Pokemon titles combined to sell more than 1.7 million units last month, making October the biggest month for 3DS software all year, said NOA. Total 3DS first-party software sales reached more than 2 million copies in the month, the most since the report for December 2011, which included sales of Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7, it said. Pokemon X was the month’s No. 2 videogame, while Pokemon Y was No. 3, said NPD. The only title that beat them was Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto V for the 360 and PS3, again No. 1 in its second month, said NPD. Just under 1.1 million copies of that game were sold last month in the U.S., said NPD analyst Liam Callahan.
Nintendo on Friday didn’t say how many Wii U and Wii systems were sold last month, while Sony Computer Entertainment America didn’t say how many PS3s, PS Vitas and PSPs were sold. NPD stopped providing sales data for each system to reporters a while ago.
Total U.S. videogame hardware sales fell 8 percent year-over-year last month, to $171.7 million, said NPD. “The success of the 3DS helped lift portable hardware sales” last month, which marked the first time portable hardware sales grew in the U.S. since February 2012, when the PS Vita launched, said Callahan. The portable hardware sales growth “helped partly offset the decline” of console hardware sales, he said. It was the smallest year-over-year decline this year, excluding January, which included an extra week of reporting, he said. Game hardware sales are expected to get a major lift in November behind the PS4 and Xbox One launches in the U.S.
Total U.S. videogame industry sales across all products in the physical retail channel grew 5 percent last month year-over-year to $791.1 million, said NPD. It was the third straight month in which total videogame sector retail sales grew, said Callahan. Videogame software sales grew 12 percent in the same channel to $482.5 million. Factoring in PC games, total U.S. game software sales in the physical retail channel grew 10 percent to $495.1 million, said NPD. The dollars cited by NPD were only about 50 percent of the total money that U.S. consumers spent on games last month, said Callahan. When factoring in NPD’s preliminary estimate for other physical channel sales including used games and rentals at $89 million, and its estimate for digital game sales at $491 million, Callahan projected that U.S. consumers spent just over $1.3 billion on the sector last month. Digital game sales take into account full game and add-on content downloads including microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps and social network games, he said.
Total U.S. videogame accessory sales inched up 1 percent to $136.9 million last month, said NPD. The growth was helped by a more than 70 percent increase in sales of interactive gaming toys that includes combined sales of Disney Infinity and Activision’s Skylanders products, said Callahan. It was also the strongest October ever for videogame point and subscription cards, helped by a 12 percent increase in average prices that he said indicates consumers are “becoming more comfortable purchasing higher denominations of point cards and that they are purchasing subscription cards for longer time periods.”