August NPD figures Show 360, PS3 Growth , Wii decline

Are people over the Wii and its motion-controlled gaming? Is that fad coming to an end? Well, it possibly would have been, had Microsoft and Sony not been so keen to introduce their own waggle via Kinect and Move respectively.

As evidenced by the latest NPD figures the once insurmountable Wii seems to be in a steady decline – while sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3 are climbing.

In August the Xbox 360 was the top-selling console in North America, selling 356,700 units – even besting the perennial top seller, the Nintendo DS which sold 342,700 units. The Wii, although losing a lot of momentum sold 244,300 units; Just a few thousand more than the PS3 – which has shown steady growth for 13 consecutive months.

The full hardware breakdown looks like this :

• Xbox 360 – 356,700
• Nintendo DS – 342,700
• Wii – 244,300
• PlayStation 3 – 226,000
• PSP – 79,400

On the software side of things, Madden dominated the charts, as was to be expected. The only other newcomer to chart was Mafia 2, which sold 121,600 on the Xbox 360.

1. Madden NFL 11 (Xbox 360) – 920,800
2. Madden NFL 11 (PS3) – 893,600
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) – 124,600
4. Mafia II (360) – 121,600
5. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) – 110,400

NPD’s Anita Frazier reckons September will be a big month for Microsoft, and she’s probably right – considering Halo: Reach will be released. “Looking forward, Halo: Reach releases on 14th September and will kick off the mega-title releases for the remainder of the year. The 360 install base is now about triple what it was when Halo 3 was launched so the potential audience for Reach is significantly larger,” wrote Frazier.

“Between the size of the potential audience, the quality of the game previews, and the hefty marketing program behind the game, we can expect big numbers to be reported with September results.”

Last Updated: September 10, 2010