Andre Yoskowitz
20 Oct 2009 9:31
Last week, the NPD Group was forced to push back their monthly US gaming sales numbers due to a "processing issue," but the figures were made available early this morning.
After 6 months of declines, year-on-year, the gaming industry returned to growth for September, albeit barely. September 2009 saw a 1 percent growth year-on-year, with sales rising $10 million USD to $1.28 billion.
"The industry managed a modest increase over September 2008, and generated the second bestselling September on record after 2007 when Halo 3 released and sold over 3 million copies that month," added NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "On a unit sales basis, the industry was flat. The increase in revenues is driven by a rise in average retail prices in all categories with the exception of console hardware in which the average retail price decreased 8 percent from last September."
As expected, the price drop of the PlayStation 3 alongside the release of the slimmed down 120GB model helped push the PS3 towards the top of the hardware charts, slightly behind the DS/DSi but ahead of the Xbox 360 and Wii.
Sony sold 491,800 units, its best month for the PS3 since launch month almost 3 years ago.
The Nintendo Wii, which also saw a price cut to $200 from $250, sold 462,800 units, its strongest showing in a number of months and 33 percent better than August.
The Xbox 360 lagged behind its rivals at 352,600 units sold. The console also saw a boost after Microsoft dropped the price of the Elite model to $300.
"All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87 percent, 33 percent, and 31 percent respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a five-week month compared to four weeks in August)," noted Frazier.
Concludes Frazier: "Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year's sales. This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70 percent over the prior month. This is the first month that the PS3 has captured the top spot in console hardware sales."
Overall numbers, via GameSpot.
US VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY - SEPTEMBER 2009 (Aug. 30-Oct. 3)
Hardware: $472.28 million (-6%)
Software: $649.32 million (+5%)
Accessories: $157.33 million (+2%)
Total Games: $1.28 billion (+1%)
TOP-SELLING HARDWARE - SEPTEMBER 2009
Nintendo DS: 524,200
PlayStation 3: 491,800
Wii: 462,800
Xbox 360: 352,600
PSP: 190,400
PlayStation 2: 146,000