NPD March data - Xbox 360 beats PS3 - Wii and DS smash competition
By Dave Parrack
The official NPD sales figures for March have finally arrived, and they’ve proven to be a combination of surprises and “I told you so”. The biggest news for any follower of console sales is that the Xbox 360 beat the PS3 for the month.
First of all, I should say I was wrong for the story on Tuesday heralding industry analyst Michael Pachter’s predictions. I do only report the news, and that was the news of the day, but without beating around the bush, he got the figures way off.
The Nintendo Wii and DS are, as expected, way out in front as usual, selling over double the amount of units in the US as their respective home and hand-held competitors. But, when it comes to the rest of the figures, Pachter deserves a slap.
March Hardware Sales
1. Wii - 721,000
2. Nintendo DS - 698,000
3. PSP - 297,000
4. Xbox 360 - 262,000
5. PlayStation 3 - 257,000
6. PlayStation 2 - 216,000
The Sony PSP outsold everything but the two Nintendo consoles, whereas Pachter believed it would be bottom of the class.
And then the big one, the story which dominate until next month’s figures are released: The Xbox 360 beating the PS3, going against all predictions, and even surprising Microsoft itself.
It is only a slim lead of 5,000 consoles, but that’s enough to prove the Red Ring of Death crippled Xbox still has some life left in it yet. The Playstation 3 however, seems to have lost the momentum it had been building since Christmas.
The NPD also released its official software charts, and it’s another home run for Nintendo, with the top selling Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii almost quadrupling the numbers achieved by second placed Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on the Xbox.
March Software Sales
1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo, Wii) - 2,700,000
2. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Ubisoft, X360) - 752,300
3. Army of Two (Electronic Arts, X360) - 606,100
4. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 409,800
5. God of War: Chains of Olympus (Ready at Dawn, SCEA, PSP) - 340,500
6. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Square-Enix, PSP) 301,600
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Vicarious Visions, Activision, Wii) - 264,100
8. MLB 2K8 (Kush Games, 2K Sports, X360) - 237,100
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, Activision, X360) - 237,000
10. Army of Two (Electronic Arts, PS3) - 224,900
So in essence, another top month for Nintendo, but that was expected across the board. What wasn’t expected was the Xbox 360 to beat the PS3, and that is a real shocker.
Executives at Microsoft must be laughing in to their coffees this afternoon, while the spin doctors at Sony will no doubt be putting a brave face on it all, and preparing some statistics to prove they are actually on top.
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Tips N4G
April 18th, 2008
360 winning by 5K is not winning it is a statistical tie. NPD numbers have a % margin or error exceeding 5K.
April 18th, 2008
good job 360! the gamers know where the games are.
April 18th, 2008
damn… I wonder what “The Future of Sega” is going to say…
Well good job… I rooted for you in the beginning to kick Sony’s ass… then you let me down… now you are fighting strong…
Keep going Wii… show them that graphics isnt everything… YAY!!!
As long as I have God Of War III Im happy…
April 18th, 2008
360 is probably leading cuz the fanboys who suffered the RROD had to buy them again.
See, If u are a Ps3 fanboy u only buy the console once. But 360 owners have to buy like 10 of em. No wonder 360 is leading.
April 18th, 2008
The 40gig PS3 has been in the top 10 or mid teens for over a month at Amazon.com while the 360 has been in the mid to upper 50’s on the bestsellers list. Not to mention that the 80gig went to no.1 when it was available ( I think that that shortage is hurting Sony) Is Amazon.com not reflective of the overall market? It would be nice to see the numbers from the different retailers.
April 18th, 2008
nicely put hammy….
April 18th, 2008
good job kev, the kevin’s know where the kevin’s are.
April 18th, 2008
um..hammy… the 3 yr warranty ms is offering ensures people don’t have to buy additional consoles, unlike sony and the ps2. nice fanboying.
April 18th, 2008
I love it how Dave Parrack loves to ‘put the boot in’ when news of PS3 beating 360 in sales is reported by some analyst, but turns around and says ‘i just report the news’ whenthe analyst is proven wrong.
FOR SHAME DAVE PARRACK!!!!
April 18th, 2008
Ah kev, sony dont need to offer 3 yr warranty’s, like most electrical appliances…oh except microsoft. Nice fanboying though. Before you start crapping on about 3 yr warranties etc, etc. Remember MIcrosoft origianlly only offered 12 month warranties (like everyone else) until all thier units started crapping themselves. Defend as much as you want but the proof is out there and very well known and no matter what you say will not change it.
April 19th, 2008
Spidey, whenever I but any sort of electrical device, no matter what it is, I always opt for the 3-5 year warranty. Only an idiot wouldn’t. Microsoft has given 360 owners a 3 year warranty for free. Not a bad deal at all!
April 19th, 2008
Ohhh this is the US sales data???
I thought this was the worldwide sales data…
A couple of things I wanted to say… first of all… MS pledged 1 billion dollars to fix the broken 360s and extended their warranty… you cant buy bad press like that… and the negative goodwill…
When has Sony produced anything that had such a huge failure rate that it had to extend their warranty period??
And Sony and MS BOTH makes crappy games.. you wanna talk about Lair??? How about Dead or Alive Xtreme?? and Xtreme 2??? They actually made a sequel to the “bouncing boob” game…
The latest “Code of Death” is a software problem.. NOT a hardware problem like the “Red Ring of Death” a software problem can be solved easilly (by re booting the firmware to the default one)
Why does everyone comment on the Wii being a “dust collector” is it because they are selling at a faster rate than PS3 and 360 COMBINED???
I absolutely LOVE the Wii… the previous generation of consoles were about graphics… this should be about gameplay… thats why they are called Video GAMEs…
The problem with Wii is that their 3rd party games arent very good… and the control sceme of the 3rd party games are very weird and not fun… they are either too easy or just plain stupid… (like the controls of Madden and Fifa)
What classifies a “harcore” gamer??? is it someone who plays gore-y violent games with lots of blood and guts in them?? Does the story have to have “Mature” themes like nudity??
Why isnt Wii given the respect it deserves?? is it because it costs too little or because of the graphics??
Anyways I think this year is going to be very competitive between Sony and MS… Sony has Haze GT5 MGS coming out… and MS has Gears 2 and Halo something ( I forgot the name) coming out… but Im afraid that the popularity of GTA 4 will overshadow Haze and MGS… specially because GTA4 is likely to be sold more in the 360s (cus its cheaper… DVDs *cough* last gen *cough* are alwasy cheaper)
But this is another year for the Wii… because they have Wii Fit… Wii chess… Mario Kart… and Brawl… I wonder who will sell more units of software and consoles???
So fight for the 2nd place Sony and MS… cus even if the Wii does become a “dust collector” in the next coupla months… Nintendo has earned enough revenue to realese another Wii… perhaps this time they will include a hard drive…
Ill be happy as long as God of War III is released this year… DIE ZEUS DIE!!!
April 19th, 2008
(1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo, Wii) - 2,700,000)
that made my day lol
April 25th, 2008
Just to comment on the code of death being solved by rebooting.
Not true. They are having to be sent back to sony because their console ends up bricked.
And there are plenty of ps3 owners on their 3rd console, more than for it to be just a one-off.
the blu-ray drive failing is another more common than the ps3 fanboys would have us believe hardware fault.
At least M$ gave a 3yr warranty (not that even half will need it but the ps3 fangirls will have us believe their lies about how every single 360 made from now to eternity will fail) but what did sony do on the ps2 huge failure rate. Make everyone buy a new one because the warranty didn’t cover it. I didn’t thats why I still have a broken ps2, no ps3 and a 360 that works fine. Made after the batch that had the fault so no problem, unless your a ps3 nay-sayer