HomeWelcome to the November 2011 edition of our regular NPD US video game sales analysis. In this feature, we look at video game sales, both hardware and software, for the month of November 2011 based on data collected by the NPD. The holiday period truly begins at November, with the Black Friday sales, it comes an important indicator as to how each game console will do during the entire Holiday period. Last year, the Xbox 360 narrowly beat a resurgent Wii, while the PS3 languished in a distant third. Will this year be any different, and will the best selling game in the history of video games, Modern Warfare 3, help hardware sales? Read on the find out.
As NPD no longer releases full hardware sales figures, this feature is reliant on the game companies, namely Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, to release their set of figures and based on “statement math” (that is, arithmetically calculate missing figures based on statements made). For November 2011, these are the statements made by the gaming companies:
- Nintendo reveals the Wii sold 860,000 units, with “more than 795,000” 3DS consoles, and “more than 350,000” units of DS (via PR email)
- Microsoft revealed 1.7 million Xbox 360 hardware units sold, with 49% of the home based console market share (source)
- Sony said that the PS3 hardware saw a “70% increase” in sales (via Patrick Seybold, Sr. Direcrtor of Corporate Communications at SCEA)
Luckily, all the statement maths added up this month, since from Microsoft and Nintendo’s statements, we can deduce the PS3 numbers to be around 900,000, and that falls into line with Sony’s “70% increase” statement (increase compared to the same time last year).
And so the figures for US sales in November 2011 are below, ranked in order of number of sales (November 2010 figures also shown, including percentage change):
- Xbox 360: 1,700,000 (Total: 30.9 million; November 2010: 1,370,000 – up 24%)
- PS3: 900,000 (Total: 18.9 million; November 2010: 530,000 – up 70%)
- Wii: 860,000 (Total: 37.7 million; November 2010: 1,270,000 – down 32%)
NPD November 2011 Game Console US Sales Figures
NPD Game Console Total US Sales Figures (as of November 2011)
My prediction from last month was:
It’s the holiday period proper, sales will be way up, and Modern Warfare 3 will help in this regard as it breaks all records. The Xbox 360, the preferred platform of MW3 and also with a new Halo game being released, will be the clear winner yet again, but it will be interesting to see if the Wii can have one last good holiday period, and there’s a new Zelda game too, so that always helps. The PS3 does have Uncharted 3 though. If I have to guess, I would say the PS3 will beat the Wii. The top games will be the ones I’ve already mentioned, plus Skyrim.
I think the above paragraph actually sums up November quite well.
The Xbox 360 was easily the clear winner, but the margin of victory was larger than most has expected. Most expected the Xbox 360 to be the best selling console, but with only moderate growth compared to the same month last year, the first holiday period for Kinect and the new “slim” Xbox 360. But Microsoft surprised everyone with a series of key price cuts, bundles, and sales, and just like how the Wii’s second holiday period was even better than the first thanks to its status as a “must-have” family gift, perhaps the Kinect is doing the same for Microsoft this time round. In any case, a 24% increase in sales compared to last November is nothing to be scoffed at, especially when last November was an amazing 67% up compared to the previous November. Here in Australia, Microsoft has also been super aggressive in discounting the Xbox 360, to prices that are practically half that of just a few months ago, and the Kinect bundle also seeing huge discounts at selected retailers. If this is the same strategy employed in other countries as well, then the Xbox 360 should have a great holiday period, and not just in the US (perhaps this is Microsoft’s response to PS3 sales that have nearly or already caught up to the 360 global sales numbers).
The PS3 also had a great November, although nowhere near as good as the Xbox 360, with the 360 almost selling twice as many units. The 70% increase compared to last November looks spectacular, but one has to take into account that last November, the PS3 sold fewer units than in 2009 (25% down actually). Compared to 2009, PS3 sales are up around 26%, so at the very least, last year’s trend has been reversed with the key price cut that came in the middle of the year. Sony also promoted the fact that PS3 software sales are up 30%, and that, more so than hardware numbers, is what Sony really likes to see (although hardware numbers obviously do help to raise the software numbers, and that’s more of a case now than the first few years of the PS3, when many used it as a cheap way to get a Blu-ray player).
It looks like 2010 was the last great holiday period for the Wii. While sales are not bad this year, they’re nowhere near the million+ figures from yesteryear. And this will be the last holiday period for the Wii as Nintendo’s lead console anyway, with the Wii U set to play a key role this time next year. Still, to label the Wii as a “loser” or “dead” is doing the console a disservice, since it still nearly outsell the PS3, and nobody it calling it a “dead” console.
On to software. As expected, MW3 completely dominated the sales charts, with incredibly, 9 million units of the game selling on all platforms, with over a billion dollars in sales. Battlefield 3 fell to 3rd place as a result, but it’s still the best selling Battlefield game in the series. Skyrim, the game many are already calling game of the year, managed to get second place and that’s probably quite impressive for a game in this genre, and certainly in the Elder Scrolls series, where it’s only taken a month for the latest installment to sell without half a million of the last installment’s lifetime sales number. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Saints Row: The Third contributed to the strong software line-up for November, making it the best November on record, despite recent trend suggesting that wouldn’t have been the case. For platform exclusives, Uncharted 3 did extremely well to get up to 7th place with 700,000 units sold, ahead of the new Zelda game at 600,000. Super Mario Land 3D and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary didn’t make the combined platforms top 10, but would have easily made the top 10 separated by SKU. Here’s the full software sales chart for November (new releases for November 2011 in bold):
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC)
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
- Battlefield 3 (EA, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
- Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Ubisoft, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
- Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft, Wii, Xbox 360)
- Madden NFL 12 (EA, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)
- Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Sony, PS3)
- Saints Row: The Third (THQ, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo, Wii)
- Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros, Xbox 360, PS3)
My prediction for December? Same hardware ordering, and a software chart that looks very similar to this month’s, so there’s nothing much to add to that really.
Except for the obligatory, “see you next month”!
