PS4 Was Top-Selling Game System in U.S. Last Month

More than 1 million PS4s were sold in all of North America in the console’s first 24 hours of availability Nov. 15, SCEA said at the PlayStation Blog. Factoring in the data provided by SCEA and Microsoft, as well as the facts that (a) the U.S. typically accounts for the bulk of a console’s North American sales and (b) after launch day there were not many PS4s available at U.S. retail stores through the end of the month, it’s likely that slightly more than 1 million PS4s were sold in the U.S. during November. The PS4’s performance represented the “highest first month sales of a hardware platform on record,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan.

The PS4’s U.S. performance echoed the slight lead that the console maintained over the Xbox One globally. Xbox One sales passed the 2 million mark globally in its first 18 days available, Microsoft said Wednesday (CED Dec 12 p7). But PS4 global sales were apparently running slightly ahead of Microsoft’s console because Sony said Dec. 3 that its new console had already hit the 2.1 million sales mark (CED Dec 4 p9).

The 909,132 Xbox Ones that were sold in the U.S. in the console’s first nine days made it the “fastest selling console on the market” there, said Microsoft. Xbox One sales “averaged a volume of more than 101,000 consoles per day, significantly outpacing the nearest competitor,” it said, citing NPD’s data. PS4 sales included an extra week within the November data month (actually Nov. 3-30) compared to the Xbox One, said Callahan. “When looking at sales on an average per-week basis, Xbox One led PS4,” he said. But “supply typically becomes constrained in the second week after launch,” he said. The Xbox One launched Nov. 22 in the U.S. and its performance “marked the largest launch” for a Microsoft console to date, he said. Almost three times as many Xbox Ones were sold in the U.S. last month than were sold of the Xbox 360 in that console’s U.S. launch month of November 2005, said Microsoft, citing NPD’s data.

Despite the PS4’s slight sales lead over the Xbox One in November, it was “too early in the cycle to assess or project a leading short term market position for either of the two new consoles, and there are no indications that demand is greater for one of the two right now,” independent game industry analyst Billy Pidgeon told us Friday. He predicted Sony and Microsoft will “sell through as many units as can be delivered to retail” in Q4 2013 and Q1 2014. Both companies are manufacturing “more aggressively at the start of this eight generation cycle than has been the case for a few cycles now, which will require bigger up-front costs in production and shipping,” he also said. “To the extent that either Sony or Microsoft invests much more than its direct competitor now, one console may be able to achieve an early market share lead,” he said. But that lead “could be short-lived as exclusive titles come in and we head” into Q4 2014, when “we should get a better idea whether PS4 or Xbox One can attain and hold dominant share when it matters,” he said.

Microsoft and Sony didn’t say how many of their older game systems were sold in November. Consumers spent a total of $1.2 billion on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 systems combined in November, including hardware, software and accessories, said Microsoft, again citing NPD’s data.

Wii U’s November U.S. sales soared more than 340 percent from October, said Nintendo of America (NOA). But it didn’t say Friday how many consoles were sold in either month. Strong demand for the new Nintendo games Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS, both released Nov. 22, boosted sales of Nintendo hardware systems in November by 100 percent over October, it said. That included almost 770,000 units of systems in the 3DS family, including the 2DS, and increased lifetime sales of the 3DS hardware line to almost 10.5 million units, it said. “Supported by strong content throughout” 2013, 3DS hardware unit sales grew 15 percent year-to-date through November, said Callahan.

Total U.S. videogame hardware sales jumped 58 percent year-over-year to $1.3 billion, fueled by more than 80 percent growth in sales of consoles, said Callahan. The hardware sales growth was also helped by “positive” 3DS sales, he said. It was the strongest November for total videogame hardware sales to date in the U.S., he said.

Total U.S. videogame industry sales across all products in the physical retail channel grew 7 percent from November 2012 to $2.7 billion, said NPD. It was the fourth straight month in which combined physical sales of videogame hardware, software and accessories grew year-over-year, said Callahan. But unlike the past three months, in which growth was driven by software, positive trends for hardware and accessory sales drove the increase in November, he said.

Total U.S. videogame accessory sales in the physical channel grew 17 percent year-over-year to $327.4 million, said NPD. The growth was helped by “strong double digit increases” in sales of gamepads, videogame point and subscription cards, and interactive gaming toys for Activision Blizzard’s Skylanders games and Disney Interactive’s Disney Infinity, said Callahan. The launch of the new consoles generated a more than 40 percent increase in gamepad sales because “consumers often buy a second controller at the time of their initial hardware purchase,” he said. It was the strongest November to date for sales of videogame point and subscription cards, he said. Interactive gaming toys revenue soared more than 60 percent year-over-year as combined sales of Skylanders Swap Force and Disney Infinity “provided a positive comparison” to sales of just Skylanders Giants last year, he said.

U.S. videogame software sales fell 24 percent year-over-year in the same channel to $1.09 billion, said NPD. Factoring in PC games, U.S. game software sales fell 24 percent to $1.1 billion. 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 $198 million, and its estimate for digital game sales at $586 million, Callahan projected that U.S. consumers spent just under $1.9 billion on games last month. That was up from just over $1.3 million in October (CED Nov 18 p7). Digital game sales take into account full game and add-on content downloads including microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps and social network games, he said. NPD’s final assessment of U.S. consumer spending in these areas outside of new physical retail sales will be reported in February, he said.

Attach rates of videogame software to hardware were strong for the new console introductions, with PS4 attach rates “exceeding those of the launch months” of the PS3 and the PS2, said Callahan. U.S. consumers bought an average of 2.1 games per Xbox One, said Microsoft. Sony didn’t give the PS4’s attach rate.

November was a “difficult month to compare” with November 2012, when games including the Microsoft-published Halo 4 for the Xbox 360 were released, said Callahan. Last month also included second-month sales of the “key” games Battlefield 4 from Electronic Arts (EA) and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag from Ubisoft, which “followed a typical drop off found after the first month,” he said. Collective sales from software introduced last month tumbled 41 percent compared with software released in November 2012, and were a “major contributor to the overall software decline” last month, he said.

Take-Two Interactive led 2013 videogame software sales through November and was the top publisher for the period, said Callahan. It was helped by the “continued success” of Grand Theft Auto V for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and strong sales of NBA 2K14, he said. But Grand Theft Auto V fell from No. 1 in October to No. 5 in November, said NPD. The multiplatform NBA 2K14 moved up one to No. 6, apparently helped by the releases of PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game last month. Activision’s multiplatform Call of Duty: Ghosts was November’s best-selling videogame in its first month, said NPD. It was followed by EA’s multiplatform Battlefield 4 at No. 2, Ubisoft’s multiplatform Assassin’s Creed IV at No. 3 and EA’s multiplatform Madden NFL 25 at No. 4.

Take-Two shares closed 3.2 percent higher Friday at $16.94, while EA’s shares closed 6 percent higher at $22.22 and Activision’s shares closed 0.7 percent higher at $16.77.

No Nintendo-published games were in the top 10 for November, according to NPD’s data. But Nintendo games achieved several milestones last month, said NOA. Pokemon X and Pokemon Y for the 3DS each sold more than 225,000 combined digital and physical units in their second month on the market, boosting their combined life-to-date sales to more than 2.35 million units, it said. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sold more than 280,000 combined digital and physical units last month, it said. That figure jumped to more than 405,000 units when including the special edition Zelda-themed 3DS XL system that comes with a code to download the game, it said. Several first-party 3DS titles saw “triple-digit sales percentage” increases in November from October, it said, including Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (seventh month on the market, with a 140 percent sales increase), Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (ninth month; 105 percent increase), Paper Mario: Sticker Star (13th month; 280 percent increase), Mario Kart 7 (23rd month; 130 percent increase) and Super Mario 3D Land (24th month; 235 percent increase). Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U sold more than 215,000 combined digital and physical units in its first eight days on the market, said NOA. Nintendo’s hardware is “gaining momentum at the exact right time and our software catalog is stronger than ever,” said Scott Moffitt, NOA executive vice president-sales and marketing, in a news release.