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See also: NPD Seventh generation and 2008 in video games

NPD sales figures for 2008 for the United States.For lifetime to date sales figures, see NPD Seventh generation.

2008 video game industry

  • Video game industry: $21.33 billion ($22b including PC games[1])
  • Video Games Hardware: $7.81 billion
  • Video Games Software: $10.96 billion
  • Video Game Accessories: $662 million
  • PC games: $701 million[2]
  • Total: $22.031 billion [1]

Overview

See also: NPD Seventh generation and Seventh generation (worldwide)
NPD 2008 hardware sales

2008 U.S. hardware sales

Npd yearly sales

NPD Yearly hardware sales figures

The key story for 2008 was the increased competition between the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Starting in January, the PS3 outsold the Xbox 360 by ~40k units. However, Microsoft said they misjudged demand and struggled to produce supply until late February.[3] For the entire year, the PS3 outsold the 360 five out of the twelve months, with two more months within 5k of each other. However, the Xbox 360 scored the pivotal holiday months in November and December. Overall, the PS3 experienced substantial growth from 2007. The Wii and Nintendo DS were the top two sellers. Wii, still suffering from supply issues, shifted record-breaking units month after month. The 803,000 October sales mark was a record for a non-holiday month and November's 2 million was that month's largest total. Over 31 games sold over one million copies in 2008.[4]

For the first half of 2008, revenue was at $8.3 billion, up from $6.1 billion for the same period in 2007 and $4.3 billion in 2006.[5] Annually, the industry in 2008 reached $21.33B, including $7.81B in hardware, $10.96B in software, and $2.57B in accessories.[6] "While industry growth has not continued at the blistering pace we saw during the second and third quarters, December's 9% increase over last December brings the year in 19% ahead of last year, and sets a new record for total industry sales." (Anita Frazier) The top 20 SKUs accounted for 18% of the total unit sales for 2008. For the Wii, the top ten 2008 SKUs, which includes Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii and other Nintendo-developed games, accounted for 44 percent of the sales, leaving the other 422 available Wii games to compete for the remaining 56% piece.[7] Xbox 360 and original Xbox games accounted for 19% of US software sales in 2008. 49% were for a Nintendo system (Wii/DS/GBA).[8] Including PC gaming with $701 million (retail sales), the industry reached $22 billion in revenue in 2008.[9]

NPD 2008 console sales figures

See also: NPD 2007 sales figures
Console 1st half of 2008 2nd half of 2008 2008 total sales
Consoles
Wii 3,483,000 6,668,000 10,151,000
Xbox 360 1,341,000 3,394,400 4,735,400
PlayStation 3 1,608,100 1,936,800 3,544,900
PlayStation 2 1,277,700 1,224,600 2,502,300
Handhelds
Nintendo DS 3,187,000 6,764,100 9,951,100
PSP 1,482,500 2,347,100 3,829,600
Month Wii X360 PS3 PS2 NDS PSP
January 2008 274,000 230,000 269,000 264,000 251,000 230,000
February 2008 432,000 254,600 280,800 351,800 587,600 243,100
March 2008 721,000 262,000 257,000 216,000 698,000 297,000
April 2008 714,200 188,000 187,100 124,400 414,800 192,700
May 2008 675,100 186,600 208,700 132,700 452,600 182,300
June 2008 666,700 219,800 405,500 188,800 783,000 337,400
July 2008 555,000 205,000 225,000 155,000 608,000 222,000
August 2008 453,000 195,200 185,400 144,100 518,300 253,000
September 2008 667,000 347,200 232,400 173,500 536,800 238,100
October 2008 803,000 371,000 190,000 136,000 491,000 193,000
November 2008 2,040,000 836,000 378,000 206,000 1,570,000 421,000
December 2008 2,150,000 1,440,000 726,000 410,000 3,040,000 1,020,000
Total 10,151,000 4,735,400 3,544,900 2,502,300 9,951,100 3,829,600

Months

NPD 2008 software sales

Calendar year

source source (Single SKU)

  1. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii – Nintendo – 5.28 million
  2. Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel – Wii – Nintendo – 5.00 million
  3. Wii Fit w/ balance board – Wii – Nintendo – 4.53 million
  4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Wii – Nintendo – 4.17 million
  5. Grand Theft Auto IV - Xbox 360 – Take-Two – 3.29 million*
  6. Call of Duty: World at War - Xbox 360 – Activision – 2.75 million*
  7. Gears of War 2 - Xbox 360 – Microsoft – 2.31 million*
  8. Grand Theft Auto IV - PS3 – Take-Two – 1.89 million*
  9. Madden NFL 09 - Xbox 360 – Electronic Arts – 1.87 million*
  10. Mario Kart - DS – Nintendo – 1.65 million
  11. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Xbox 360 - Activision
  12. New Super Mario Bros. - DS - Nintendo
  13. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Wii - Activision
  14. Guitar Hero World Tour - Wii - Activision
  15. Link's Crossbow Training - Wii - Activision
  16. Mario Party - DS - Nintendo
  17. Guitar Hero On Tour - DS - Activision
  18. Fable II - Xbox 360 - Microsoft
  19. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games - DS - Sega
  20. Madden NFL 09 - PS3 - Electronic Arts

Top 10 games by revenue

[10]

  1. Rock Band – Multiple Platforms
  2. Wii Fit – Wii
  3. Guitar Hero: World Tour – Multiple Platforms
  4. Grand Theft Auto IV – Multiple Platforms
  5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock – Multiple Platforms
  6. Mario Kart Wii – Wii
  7. Madden NFL 09 – Multiple Platforms
  8. Wii Play w/ Remote – Wii
  9. Call of Duty: World at War – Multiple Platforms
  10. Super Smash Bros. Brawl – Wii

Top 5 games (Combined SKUs)

[11]

  1. Wii Play - 5.28m
  2. Madden NFL 09 - 5.25m
  3. Grand Theft Auto IV - 5.22m
  4. Mario Kart w/ Wheel - 5.0m
  5. Call of Duty: World at War - 4.63m

August update

NPD released an update in for sales through August with the top 5 selling games of 2008 at that point (not including collector's editions or bundles). PS3 has one first party (Gran Turismo 5P) and 4 third-party, cross-platform games. Nintendo, in contrast, has 4 first-party games and 1 third party (Guitar Hero). Four of them contain an accessory and Wii Fit and GH are priced higher than the typical $50 pricepoint. Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III are the only games on the list released in 2007.

Xbox 360 (all of 2008)[2]
  1. Grand Theft Auto IV
  2. Call of Duty: World at War
  3. Rock Band
  4. Gears of War 2
  5. Madden NFL 09
  6. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
  7. Fable II
  8. Rock Band 2
  9. Left 4 Dead
  10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
PlayStation 3 (up to August)
  1. Grand Theft Auto IV
  2. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  4. Madden NFL 09
  5. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue
Wii (up to August)
  1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl: over 3.2 million
  2. Mario Kart Wii: 2.7 million
  3. Wii Play: 2.5 million
  4. Wii Fit: 1.8 million
  5. Guitar Hero III: About 1.3 million

2024 Update

In January 2024, Circana published revised rankings for the year based on revenue. No digital is incorporated in the list[12]

  1. Rock Band
  2. Guitar Hero: World Tour
  3. Wii Fit
  4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
  5. Madden NFL 09
  6. Wii Play
  7. Call of Duty: World at War
  8. Grand Theft Auto IV
  9. Mario Kart Wii
  10. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
  11. Rock Band 2
  12. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  13. Gears of War 2
  14. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
  15. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
  16. Fallout 3
  17. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
  18. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
  19. NCAA Football 09
  20. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

See also

Charts

References

External links



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