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See also: NPD 2008 in review

December 2008 NPD sales data coverage: November 30 to January 3, 2008. Released on January 15, 2009.

The United States video game industry saw considerable growth in December 2008, with nearly all consoles achieves sales increases over the same period last year. In what appears to be a regular occurrence, Nintendo performed well as a company as the Wii moved 2.15 million units in the holiday month. Some analysts were expecting the Wii to break the PS2 sales record month of 2.7 million from December 2002, but it appears stock issues again hindered the Wii. The Nintendo DS picked up momentum and sold 3.04 million, an astonishing number for its fifth December.

In what can't be seen as good news for Sony, all three of its systems saw a decrease in sales from NPD December 2007. The PS2 dropped down by almost 700,000. Its Q3 sales earnings will be released in the coming weeks.

Call of Duty: World at War followed up its strong November showing by shifting 1.33 million on the Xbox 360 alone. Five titles in the top 10 belong to the Wii, all but Guitar Hero are first-party. Xbox 360 snatched up three spots, while the PlayStation 3's Call of Duty landed at #9. Strong sales of Guitar Hero and Rock Band show music-themed games are still very popular in the U.S.

Anita Frazier, NPD Group analyst, says "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."

"This month marks the first time that industry revenue has topped $5B in any single month. In 1997, annual revenues were $5.1B, and now a single month has realized that level of sales."[1]

Hardware sales[]

Npd december 2008

Year over year comparison

Top 20 software sales[]

  1. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) – 1.46 million
  2. Call of Duty: World at War (X360) – 1.33 million*
  3. Wii Fit w/ balance board (Wii) – 999K
  4. Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel (Wii) – 979K
  5. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Wii) – 850K*
  6. Gears of War 2 (X360) – 745K*
  7. Left 4 Dead (X360) – 629K
  8. Mario Kart (NDS) – 540K
  9. Call of Duty: World at War (PS3) – 533K
  10. Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii) – 497K*
  11. Wii Music (Wii) - 487,000[2]LTD of 865k and then subtract Oct and Nov months)
  12. New Super Mario Bros. (NDS)
  13. Personal Trainer: Cooking (NDS)
  14. Fallout 3* (X360)
  15. Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force (NDS)
  16. Link's Crossbow Training (Wii)
  17. Guitar Hero World Tour* (PS2)
  18. Madden NFL 09* (X360)
  19. Call Of Duty: World At War (Wii)
  20. Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Wii)- 366k [3][4][5]
Other sales
  • Rock Band 2 (Wii) - 150,000[6]
  • DeBlob - 250k LTD through December[7]
  • LittleBigPlanet - 255k (611k LTD)[8]
  • Resistance 2 - 213k[8]
  • Metal Gear Solid 4 - 1.076 million LTD (775k in June, 301k in July-Dec)[8]
  • Prince of Persia - 483k LTD (all SKUs)[8]
  • Tomb Raider: Underworld - 246k (all SKUs)[8]
  • Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts - 140k LTD[9]
  • Fable II - 1.2 million LTD[9]
  • Spore - 720,000 LTD[10]

Video game revenues[]

  • Total sales: $5.29b
  • Hardware sales: $1.88b
  • Software sales: $2.75b

Analysis[]

NPD spin:

See also[]

References[]

External links[]



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