Culture

April NPD: DSi Sells Big, Everything Else Plummets

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Image courtesy Nintendo

The launch of Nintendo DSi propelled total U.S. sales of DS hardware to over 1 million units in the month of April 2009, the NPD Group reported on Thursday.

Update: On Friday, in a note to investors, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter said that DSi alone sold 828,000 units, calling the handheld’s performance “the one saving grace of an otherwise miserable month.”

Meanwhile, sales of nearly every other game console fell versus April 2008. Wii sold only 340,000 units compared to 714,200 last year, although it is still the top-selling home machine by a wide margin.

“It is important to remember that last April, Wii hardware sales were fueled by two huge new titles:  Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart.  Taking that into account, Wii unit sales are still very strong,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement.

Similarly, sales of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in April 2008 were fueled by the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV. Without any comparable titles this month, sales of everything are down.

Console April 2009 April 2008

| Wii | 340,000 | 714,200

| Nintendo DS | 1,040,000 | 414,800

| PSP | 116,000 | 192,700

| Xbox 360 | 175,000 | 188,000

| PlayStation 3 | 127,000 | 187,000

| PlayStation 2 | 172,200 | 124,400

More analysis, and April 2009’s top 10 software, below.

Update: NPD has also released the top 10 game sales for each platform in April 2009.

Top 10 U.S. Software Sales, April 2009

  1. WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD    NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Wii    471K

  2. POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION    NINTENDO OF AMERICA    NDS    433K

  3. MARIO KART W/ WHEEL    NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Wii    210K

  4. PLAY W/ REMOTE    NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Wii    170K

  5. THE GODFATHER II    ELECTRONIC ARTS    360    155K

  6. RESIDENT EVIL 5*    CAPCOM USA    360    122K

  7. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS    NINTENDO OF AMERICA    NDS    119K

  8. MARIO KART DS    NINTENDO OF AMERICA    NDS    112K

  9. GUITAR HERO AEROSMITH*    ACTIVISION BLIZZARD (CORP)    360    110K

  10. THE GODFATHER II    ELECTRONIC ARTS    PS3    91K

*Includes instrument bundles, collector’s editions, etc.

“April would have been a great month to release a big new game because there weren’t a lot of high profile new releases.  In fact, you can see that the top 10 list for the month includes many games we’ve seen on the list for months, if not years,” said Frazier.

Even if it didn’t seem to help Godfather II.

Note that Microsoft, by dropping the price on the Xbox 360, did in fact manage to keep its sales relatively steady (although still down).

Similarly, the PlayStation 2 price drop has had a significant impact on sales, although I don’t think that is going to make Sony feel that much better considering the fact that PS3 and PSP dropped big time this month.

Then again, Sony did just post its first net loss in 14 years — more than half of which came from losses in the games division — and forecasts that it is going to lose even more money in the next 12 months. So I’m sure they were already having a pretty bad day.

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