Xbox 360 Dominates NPD November Console Charts

November is a big month for electronic device sales in the Us. Thanks to Black Friday – the day after thanksgiving and the traditional start of Christmas shopping – and its many incredible deals, high-priced items like consoles have a tendency to fly off shelves.

November’s hardware sales tend to paint a pretty accurate picture of what the American public wants – and will be getting – for Christmas. Let’s take a little gander and see how each performed.

• Nintendo DS: 1.5 Million (-11.8%)
• Xbox 360: 1.37 Million (+68%)
• Wii: 1.27 Million (+0.8%)
• PS3: 530k (-25%)

Nintendo’s aging DS has dropped by nearly 12%, and that’s with the expected surge in sales from Black Friday taken in to account. The Wii did better than most people were expecting, shifting 1.27 million units. To be fair on the Wii, it has had a stellar software line-up this year, with titles like Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country Returns making the company’s “core” demographic a little happier.

The biggest upset is Sony’s Playstation3, which sold 25% less year-on-year – and the much anticipated, oft-delayed GT5, expected to be a console-seller, hasn’t really had that effect. According to the NPD the driving simulator surprisingly sold only 400K units in its first week, something that must be disappointing to Sony and Polyphony Digital. According to the Japanese console manufacturer they’ve shipped (not sold) 5.5 million copies of the game – so hopefully those will be finding their way in to PS3’s soon.

The big winner for November is Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which saw a nearly 70% increase in YOY sales, totalling 1.37 million. The huge upsurge is quite probably down to Kinect and the insane amount of marketing and advertising they’ve done, spending in the region of $500 million. That’s seemed to have worked quite well, because Kinect’s become the fastest selling gadget in history, surpassing even Apple’s iPad in swift consumer uptake. Kinect or not, it’s the 6th consecutive month that Microsoft’s home console has been top of the charts.

It’ll be interesting to get hold of some post-Kinect sales figure for South Africa, and see if the motion-sensor du jour has had a similar impact locally.

Source : Bloomberg

Last Updated: December 10, 2010