Xbox 360 Outsold PS3, Wii Again in October, NPD Data Show

The Xbox 360 was the best-selling videogame home console system again in October, outselling the PS3 and Wii by wide margins, according to NPD data provided to Consumer Electronics Daily by an industry source. The research firm recently stopped providing hardware unit sales data to reporters (CED Oct 18 p5). But NPD continued to make other game industry sales data available, and the data again showed that overall U.S. sales were down from 2009.

Xbox 360 sales grew to 325,000 units in October from 249,700 a year earlier (CED Nov 16/09 p5), according to our source, who said he received the data from NPD. But that was down from the 484,000 sold in September 2010. All sales numbers are approximate. The console’s U.S. installed base grew to 22.2 million -- still far ahead of the PS3’s 13.7 million, but still far behind the Wii’s 30.4 million. The Xbox 360 was the only home console whose sales grew from October 2009. It was also “the only platform” overall to see unit sales growth from October 2009, factoring in handheld systems, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said. Microsoft’s console has also “generated the most unit sales among the console platforms” year-to-date, she said. It was “the fifth consecutive month” in which the 360 was the best-selling home console, Microsoft said. Microsoft also said it was “seeing great consumer attachment to” games for its new Kinect for Xbox 360 motion sensor, including Kinect Adventures, Dance Central and Kinect Sports. “In just 10 days,” Microsoft “sold more than 1 million sensors to consumers,” it said. But the Kinect didn’t launch in the U.S. until Nov. 4, playing no role in the October sales data.

The Nintendo DS was October’s best-selling hardware system overall, Frazier said. Nintendo of America spokesman Charlie Scibetta said “more than 342,000” DS systems were sold across all SKUs in October. But that was down steeply from the 457,600 sold in October 2009. NOA didn’t say what the DS U.S. installed base increased to.

Overall handheld videogame hardware sales fell 34 percent from October 2009, our source said. NPD and Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) didn’t say how many PSPs were sold in October. The source said only that PSP sales fell 58 percent from October 2009’s 174,600, which indicated that sales came in at only 73,300 this time, easily making it the worst-selling current-generation system in October. It’s widely believed that strong demand for games on Apple’s handheld devices are cutting into traditional portable videogame demand. The planned March U.S. launch of the Nintendo 3DS handheld system could also be causing some consumers to delay handheld videogame hardware purchases.

PS3 sales fell to 250,000 units in October from 320,600 in October last year and 312,000 in September 2010. Despite the declining sales, SCEA spokesman Patrick Seybold said the PS3 “has been building up tremendous momentum heading into the peak holiday season and we're seeing strong movement at retail for both hardware and software.” There was a 15 percent increase in sales of the PS3 Move bundle since launch last month and SCEA was “working hard to keep the inventory up across the country to meet strong consumer demand,” he said.

Wii sales tumbled to 232,000 units in October from 506,900 in October last year and 254,000 in September 2010.

Overall U.S. videogame industry sales fell 4 percent in October from a year earlier to $1.07 billion, NPD said. The data included sales of all interactive games sold in the physical retail channel, including PC titles, as well as hardware and accessories. Total hardware sales tumbled 26 percent to $280 million. Videogame sales for consoles and handheld systems, not including PC titles, grew 6 percent to $605 million. Overall physical game sales, including PC, fell 4 percent to $1.03 billion.

Accessory sales jumped 18 percent from a year earlier to $142 million, “driven by the increased sales of specialty controllers and videogame points and subscription cards,” said Frazier. The best-selling specialty controllers were for the PlayStation Move, which she said helped grow the average selling price of specialty controllers by $31 to $51 in October. But she said the 1,600 Microsoft point card for Xbox Live was the best-selling accessory for “the fifth consecutive month.” She predicted that specialty controllers will “contribute significantly to industry sales” this holiday season based on the strong sales of Move in October and “the reported success of the Kinect early in its launch."

The month’s best-selling videogame SKU was the Xbox 360 version of Fallout: New Vegas from Bethesda Softworks, which moved about 679,000 copies including the collector’s edition, Frazier said. Factoring in all SKUs, Fallout was the month’s No. 2 title, behind only Take-Two Interactive’s multi-platform NBA 2K11. Rounding out the top five titles were Medal of Honor for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC from Electronic Arts (EA) at No. 3, Microsoft’s 360 game sequel Fable III at No. 4 and the multi-platform Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II from LucasArts. October was “the month of new releases,” with EA’s Madden NFL 11 the oldest title in the top 10, Frazier said. It was released in August. Rock Band 3 from MTV Games and Harmonix came in at only No. 15 among all titles, factoring in all SKUs, its first month available, but she said the game was released Oct. 26, “which only represents a few days in our October sales data.” The game “has the potential to perform well over the holidays,” based on strong reviews from game critics, she said. Music videogames have been performing weakly all this year.